NORTH SALT LAKE, Utah, Oct. 27, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A North Salt Lake man was arrested Saturday after police say he posted live videos on Facebook showing his mother, who appeared to be deceased, and himself.
North Salt Lake police were dispatched on a report of a female who had shot herself, according to a probable cause statement filed in 2nd District Court in Farmington.
Officers had been told that the woman’s son, 24-year-old Jeffrey Antonio Langford, had posted three live videos from the apartment, showing the woman apparently deceased; Langford crying, saying “she shot herself right in front of me,” and commenting that he was not going to go to jail; and saying his mother deserves a good send-off.
Another caller indicated to police dispatchers that Langford had told her on Facebook that he was going to shoot himself.
Officers spoke with Langford on the phone, and he then came out of the apartment and was taken into custody, the probable cause statement says. Police then went in and confirmed that the woman inside the apartment — Langford’s mother — was dead.
According to the statement, Langford had a substance on his face and clothing that appeared to be blood, and he “exhibited signs of being intoxicated.”
While being interviewed at the North Salt Lake Police Department, Langford told the officer that he and his mother had been drinking.
According to the statement, “During the interview, Jeffrey was not consistent with where he was when he stated his mother shot herself.”
Langford told the officer he didn’t call 911 because “he was scared because everything was happening too fast.”
When asked what his mother had done, Langford “stated that she had first slit her throat with a knife and indicated the left side of her neck and then said she had shot herself a total of three times in the head,” the charging document states.
In a search of the apartment, a handgun was found in the woman’s hand where she lay in the living room, and three spent shell casings were found in Langford’s room, the document states.
Langford was asked about one of the videos, in which his mother has a gunshot wound to the head, has agonal breathing, and her eyes were moving. She appears to be alive, but would not have been able to manipulate the gun and shoot herself again, the officer told Langford.
“Jeffrey stated he did not want her to be in pain or be a vegetable, so he shot her once in the back of the head with the revolver while she was still alive,” the officer stated in the charging document.
The case is still open, and officials were still awaiting the Medical Examiner’s report on the victim’s injuries at the time Langford was booked into the Davis County Jail.
Langford is facing charges of murder, a first-degree felony; obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony; and carrying a dangerous weapon under the influence of alcohol/drugs., a class B misdemeanor.
