WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, May 31, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — West Valley City police are investigating two shootings of young males that happened hours apart on Tuesday. The second attack was fatal, and both shootings are being investigated as possible gang-related incidents.
The second shooting happened at about 9:30 p.m. near 4675 W. Thayn Drive (3935 South). Neighbors heard shouts and fighting, and some went outside to yell at the combatants to stop, according to WVCPD spokeswoman Roxanne Vainuku.
When residents turned away to call police, shots rang out, and they returned to find a young man dead in the street, she said.
Lt. Blair Barfuss, West Valley City Police Department, was on the scene.
“On arrival, officers found a late teens-early 20s male suffering from a gunshot wound,” Barfuss told Gephardt Daily. “Life saving efforts were attempted, however they were unsuccessful. That individual passed away at this location.”
Police were still working into the early hours of Wednesday to interview all witnesses and people who had been in the area.
The first incident involved a 15-year-old shot on Tuesday afternoon. The teen was conscious, alert and talking when he was transported to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. Barfuss also responded to the scene of the earlier shooting, in the area of 3800 South and 1900 West. One witness told Gephardt Daily that a Hispanic male in a white Escalade, wearing a white bandana, fired at the youth, who clutched his abdomen and seemed surprised he had been hit.
“We have multiple eyewitnesses in the area that observed an altercation between two groups of people,” Barfuss said. “We believe it is gang related. Approximately four shots were fired.”
Barfuss said officers worked multiple hours conducting interviews with witnesses and following up on initial leads, ” … so we can find out who did this and hold them accountable.”
Vainuku said because both shootings involved similar group confrontations by people of the same approximate age, it was likely the fatal shooting also will be investigated as possibly gang related.
