WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Feb. 1, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — Police have arrested two 16-year-old boys in connection with the gang-related homicide of a 15-year-old who was chased through traffic and shot dead.
The names of the 16-year-olds have not been released because they are minors. Killed in the Jan. 18 shooting was Irving Alex Chuba. His pet chihuahua also died in the shooting.
West Valley City police responded to the scene at 9:45 p.m. that night, according to a statement released by the department. They found Chuba deceased.
The boy had been traveling in a van with several friends in their mid-teens when he was confronted by teens in a passenger car, a WVC statement says. The vehicles were in the area of 3500 S. Bangerter Highway.
Chuba reportedly told his passengers he knew one or more of the people in the car, and he began making frantic traffic maneuvers to try to lose the car in traffic.
The car pursued the van at a high rate of speed, running red lights and weaving through traffic, the WVCPD statement says.
When Chuba was forced to slow down by traffic at 4100 S. Bangerter Highway, the pursuing driver pulled up next to his van, and one or more people in the car fired multiple shots at close range.
Chuba was struck, and his van turned west, into an eastbound lane of 4100 South, colliding with a third vehicle. No one was seriously injured in that accident.
Chuba’s dog also died at the scene.
A statement released Thursday announcing the arrests characterized the shooting as “gang related.”
