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MURRAY, Utah, Jan. 14, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Two men have been arrested in connection with Sunday’s shooting outside the Fashion Place Mall.
In a Monday morning press conference, Murray Police Department spokesman Officer Kenny Bass said the shooting took place after an apparent chance encounter between rival gang members inside the mall.
Bass said the encounter led to a verbal altercation which was followed by an exchange of gunfire outside one of the mall’s exits.
According to probable cause statements filed Monday in Third District Court, the two suspects, Jesus Joshua Payan-Mendoza, 19, aka “Psycho,” and Jorge C. Gonzalez, also 19, belong to Florencia 13, a Los Angeles-based gang with ties to the Mexican mafia.
The two men were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail about 2:40 a.m. on charges of attempted criminal homicide and felony discharge of a firearm. Bass said it was unclear at this point who actually pulled the trigger.
The victims, a man and woman in their 20s, were identified by police as members of a rival gang. They were both taken to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, where the woman, who had been shot in the leg, was treated and released.
The male victim was shot in the leg and back, and was listed in critical condition as of Monday morning.
Bass said every police agency in the valley responded to the shooting, which took place outside Fashion Place Mall just after 1:40 p.m.
“The detectives, along with assistance from the gang task force and other officers, have been investigating the shooting through the night,” Bass said. “It’s been determined that at least the initial interaction was involving members of two separate gangs, one of which had entered the mall and gone into or around a store. The other gang then entered around the same area.
“I don’t know if it was decided between the two or if it was just happenstance, the one group started to leave the mall as the other one followed,” Bass said. “As they got outside, the second group that had gone in the mall — an individual from that group turned and fired at the first group who had entered the mall, wounding two individuals.”
“An individual that was with the two victims then returned fire,” Bass said. The identity of that shooter is unknown.
“The timing of the shooting and who shot who, when, is still under investigation,” Bass said.
A vehicle parked nearby was also hit by gunfire.
Officials subsequently identified and located Payan-Mendoza and Gonzalez. They were interviewed by detectives before being booked into Salt Lake County Jail.
Bass said it was unclear when and where the men were taken into custody.
Bass said detectives were working to identify and interview all others that were directly involved in the incident, about 10 people in all.
Bass said an alarm that went off during the shooting was inadvertent and the mall had been having trouble with the system for the past couple of days. It had nothing to do with the shooting itself, Bass said.
“It just happened to be going off even prior to the verbal altercation.”
Detectives are also viewing security footage to assist with their investigation, Bass said.
The names of the victims have not been released.
This is just the beginning. Our city is growing too fast. Our city planners need their butts kicked. Massive amounts of apts going up at record speeds etc. Salt Lake will soon be just like every other big city. Crime filled and unsafe. Think about it. Weapons fired at the Fashion Place Mall. I have dropped my kids off there so many times. I never once worried about a gang shooting. Time to slow our roll and make our communities safe again. If we continue at this pace there will be no chance, no hope of making our malls, streets, parks etc safe again.