Carnival argument shooting kills 3 in an unusually violent weekend for
Salt Lake City area
[June 17, 2025]
By MEAD GRUVER
A 16-year-old boy shot five people in a confrontation between two groups
at a carnival in a Salt Lake City suburb, killing three of them
including an 8-month-old infant, police said.
The shooting Sunday in West Valley City happened a day after an
apparently unrelated shooting killed a man at a “No Kings” protest and
marked an unusually violent weekend in the Salt Lake City area.
Police working at WestFest at Centennial Park, about 6 miles (10
kilometers) southwest of downtown Salt Lake City, saw the two groups
begin arguing Sunday night just 100 yards (91 meters) from a police
mobile command post.
“As they approached to break up the altercation, a 16-year-old male from
one of the groups pulled out a gun and fired,” the department posted on
X. One officer fired back but did not hit anyone.
The shooter struck and killed Hassan Lugundi, 18, of West Valley City,
in one of the groups. Lugundi appeared to have been an intended target,
police said.
Besides the infant boy, whose identity was not released, bystander Fnu
Reena, 41, of West Jordan, Utah, was killed. Both died at a hospital.
Reena was not the infant's mother, though she was in roughly the same
line of fire.
Two other teens, a 17-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, had
non-life-threatening wounds in the arm, police said.
It was not clear if they were connected to the groups involved. Their
identities were not released because they were juveniles.
A pregnant woman was hurt while trying to get over a fence to flee,
police said.
The 16-year-old was quickly taken into custody and booked into juvenile
detention, police said. He was charged with three counts of homicide,
West Valley City spokesperson Roxeanne Vainuku said at a news conference
Monday.
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Onlookers watch as law enforcement investigate after a reported
shooting at WestFest in West Valley City, Utah, June 15, 2025.
(Chris Samuels/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)
His name would not be released because he was a juvenile, Vainuku
said.
Police were interviewing witnesses and fellow officers to find out
more about what happened, including whether the confrontation was
gang-related, Vainuku said.
Two officers directly involved in the confrontation were being
investigated by a Salt Lake City Police Department protocol team
because one fired their gun. As a result, they would not be
immediately interviewed by West Valley City police, Vainuku said.
“In short, there are simply details we will not know until the
investigation is complete,” Vainuku said.
The carnival, a celebration of the establishment of West Valley City
and of its cultural diversity, was winding down after drawing as
many as 10,000 people over the weekend. Between 1,000 to 2,000
people were still present when the shooting happened, Vainuku said.
The apparently unrelated shooting at the “No Kings” protest the day
before happened when a man believed to be part of a peacekeeping
team for the rally shot at a man brandishing a rifle at
demonstrators, striking both the rifleman and a bystander. The
rifleman had relatively minor injuries but the bystander died at a
hospital.
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