Man arrested in slaying of infant, two others in Utah house

[September 21, 2015]  By Kevin Murphy
 
 (Reuters) - Police have arrested a man suspected of fatally shooting three people, including an infant, in a Salt Lake City house where he lived in the basement, authorities said on Saturday.

Alexander Hung Tran, 32, was booked into jail early on Saturday morning on three counts of aggravated murder, said Salt Lake City police detective Richard Chipping.

Police identified the three victims as 2-month-old Lyrik Poike, Heike Poike, 50, and Dakota Smith, 28.

Tran lived in the basement of the house and apparently was letting at least two of the victims live in the building, Chipping said. He was not sure if Tran owned or leased the residence.

Officers went to the house on Friday looking for relatives of an 8-year-old boy after nobody picked him up at school, Chipping said. An officer looked in a window and saw what appeared to be a body covered with a tarp while another officer found the back door open, Chipping said.

Officers went inside, found Tran with a gun, and took him into custody without encountering resistance. They then discovered the three bodies, Chipping said.

Heike Poike was the grandmother and Lyrik Poike the sister of the 8-year-old boy, Chipping said. He did not know if Smith was related.

Tran is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail on $1.1 million bond, according to jail records. The records did not indicate whether Tran had a lawyer.

(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Tom Brown)

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