SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Nov. 22, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A 37-year-old suspect has surrendered himself to law enforcement officials after the fatal shooting Sunday of Nicole Olsen near a downtown nightclub.
The suspect, Dustin Pedersen, has been booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on a single count of murder in the death of Olsen, a 29-year-old mother who went by the name Nikki.
Salt Lake City police were called at about 2 a.m. Sunday to the incident scene, at 300 S. West Temple. Shortly afterward, dispatch informed officers there had been a shooting.
“As officers responded, they learned someone put the victim in a car and started driving to a hospital on the University of Utah campus,” an SLCPD statement says.
Olsen died of her injury.
Investigation
“During the investigation, detectives with the Salt Lake City Police Department’s Homicide Squad learned Olsen spent part of her evening at a nightclub downtown with her boyfriend,” the SLCPD statement says.
“At some point, a group of people — including Pedersen — got into an argument with Olsen’s boyfriend. Security asked Pedersen and his friend to leave the nightclub.
“Olsen and her boyfriend remained inside the nightclub until it closed.
“Later, while parked in a parking lot near 300 W. South Temple, the two groups ran into each other and a second argument occurred, which turned into a physical fight between Pedersen’s friend and Olsen’s boyfriend.”
Arrest
On Monday, Pedersen contacted the Kane County Sheriff’s Office, saying he wanted to turn himself in. He told officers there that at the time of the shooting, “he fired a single round from his gun to scare people off during the fight inside the parking lot.”
Pedersen and his friend left the scene in a dark-colored BMW he had recently purchased, which SLCPD investigators had on recovered surveillance footage.
Kane County Sheriff officials said when Pedersen surrendered, he was driving a dark-colored BMW, and they found the alleged murder weapon in the car’s trunk, according to the Salt Lake Police statement released Tuesday.
Gephardt Daily will have more information once Pedersen’s arrest documents are filed.
Olsen’s family has established a GoFundMe account indicating it will be used to pay for funeral services. View it here.
Would love to know which club this all started at but I think I already know. The same place that draws in the type of crowd that does something like this pretty much every month. There should be constant police presence on and around Pierpont every weekend night as long as Echo is in business.