SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A complicated crime scene and uncooperative witnesses hindered Salt Lake City police efforts to investigate a shooting outside funeral services at a house of worship belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The shooting in a church parking lot left two people dead and six injured, including five who remained hospitalized with police protection Thursday. Investigators say the shooting erupted from a dispute between people who knew each other and were attending a funeral. No arrests had been made as of mid-day Thursday, a day after the gunfire. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is widely known as the Mormon church. Authorities say they do not know whether the shooting was gang-related and that they are having trouble getting witnesses to cooperate.
“Our houses of worship are sacred, whatever the affiliation,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said Thursday morning. “We should all protect those spaces. We should all respect those spaces.” All the shooting victims were adults. At least three of the injured were in critical condition, police said. Vaea Tulikihihifo, 46, and Sione Vatuvei, 38, were identified as the two people killed.
Police said they do not believe the shooting was random or motivated by animus against Mormons.
The red brick church in the northwest Salt Lake City neighborhood mostly serves Tongan congregants and holds regular worship services in their native tongue, according to its website. Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first arrived in Tonga in the early 1890s, according to the church’s website. At first, the church had little success and the mission closed in 1897. But a decade later, missionaries opened a school in Neiafu, Tonga’s second-largest town, and began preaching across the islands. Dozens of other schools were started by missionaries and seven of them remain open. The church’s membership has grown to 68,000 and 175 congregations. “Since the 19th century, the church has had a really, really prominent place in Tongan society. Depending on who you ask, somewhere between one-third and two-thirds of everybody who lives in Tonga are members of the LDS church,” said Matthew Bowman, a Claremont Graduate University professor specializing in U.S. religious history.
On Wednesday, residents from a housing complex next to the church flooded outside to help victims and console dozens of people who had been attending a funeral for a person whom police haven’t identified.
Brennan McIntire said he and his wife, Kenna, heard several loud gunshots from their apartment next to the church parking lot while watching TV. He jumped off the couch and ran outside in flip-flop sandals to see what happened.
“As soon as I came over, I see someone on the ground,” he said. “People are attending to him and crying and arguing.”
Kenna McIntire came outside soon after and was rattled at the sight of first responders lifting an unconscious woman into an ambulance while people huddled around and sobbed.
The couple said they hear gunshots in their neighborhood almost daily, but never right outside their door.
“It was really heartbreaking to hear and see,” Kenna McIntire said.
About 100 law enforcement vehicles were at the scene in the aftermath, and helicopters flew overhead. Neighbors huddled in blankets next to a taco truck, watching the officers work and waiting for updates.
Police said they were reviewing license plate readers and surveillance videos from nearby businesses in their search for suspects.
“This should never have happened outside a place of worship. This should never have happened outside a celebration of life,” Mayor Erin Mendenhall said.
The church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, was cooperating with law enforcement and said it was grateful for first responders’ quick efforts.
“We extend prayers for all who have been impacted by this tragedy and express deep concern that any sacred space intended for worship should be subjected to violence of any kind,” church spokesperson Sam Penrod said.
About half of Utah’s 3.5 million residents are members of the Mormon faith. Houses of worship like the one where the shooting occurred can be found tucked into neighborhoods around the city and state.
Mormons have been on heightened alert since four people were killed when a former Marine opened fire in one of their churches in Michigan in September and set it ablaze. The FBI found that he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against Latter-day Saints. ____ This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Vaea Tulikihihifo’s last name, which had previously been misspelled by Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd.
___ Billeaud reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao contributed from Princeton, New Jersey.
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