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Police believe the shooting in a split-level house in a Salt
Lake City suburb happened over the weekend. The victims weren't
found until Tuesday, however, when a relative who’d been unable
to reach the family went inside.
The woman found the badly wounded teen in the garage. Arriving
officers then found the mother, 38, and two girls, ages 9 and 2,
dead upstairs together in the same bed.
An 11-year-old boy was found dead in a downstairs living room
with his father. A handgun underneath the 42-year-old man led
police to believe he was the shooter.
Investigators believe the surviving teenage son made his way to
the garage after being shot elsewhere.
“The father likely shot all of the members of the family and
then himself,” West Valley City Police Department spokeswoman
Roxeanne Vainuku said at a news conference.
Neighbors hadn't reported any gunshots in the area over the
weekend. They had no previous reports of domestic violence or
other disturbances involving the family. So far, there was no
note or other evidence pointing to a motive, Vainuku said.
“It’s certainly hard for our community to comprehend,” she said.
The relative had called police on Monday night because she'd
been unable to get ahold of the mother for several days, despite
usually having regular contact with her, Vainuku said.
Officers looked in windows and spoke to neighbors, but did not
find any indications of an emergency or a crime so they asked
the family member to keep in contact, she said. After the mom
didn't show up for work on Tuesday, the family member entered
the home.
“As we know, adults have the right to do what they want to do
and they don't have to communicate with their family members if
they don't want to,” Vainuku said Tuesday. “So that is kind of a
tricky balance in protecting people's rights to do what they
want to do but also acknowledging the concerns of family
members.”
This Utah case is the 38th mass killing in the United States
this year. At least 165 people have died this year in U.S. mass
killings, which are defined by the FBI as cases in which four or
more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the
killer.
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