SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A complicated crime scene and uncooperative witnesses have hampered Salt Lake City police’s efforts to investigate a shooting outside a funeral service 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 dead and six wounded, including five who remained hospitalized Thursday under police protection. Investigators say the shooting stemmed from a dispute between people who knew each other and were attending a funeral. As of mid-day Thursday, a day after the shootings, no arrests had been made. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is widely known as the Mormon Church. Authorities say they don’t know if the shooting was gang-related and are having trouble getting witnesses to cooperate.
“Our houses of worship are sacred, regardless of affiliation,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said Thursday morning. “We should all protect those spaces. We should all respect those spaces.” All of 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 anti-Mormon animus.
The red brick church in the northwest Salt Lake City neighborhood serves a largely Tongan congregation and holds regular worship services in their native language, 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, the missionaries opened a school in Neiafu, Tonga’s second largest city, and began preaching across the islands. Dozens of other schools were opened by the missionaries and seven of them remain open. Church membership grew 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 everyone who lives in Tonga is a member of the LDS church,” said Matthew Bowman, a professor at Claremont Graduate University who specializes in US religious history.
On Wednesday, residents of an apartment complex near the church flooded outside to help the victims and console dozens of people who attended a funeral for a person whom police have not identified.
Brennan McIntire said he and his wife, Kenna, heard several loud gunshots from their apartment near the church parking lot while they were watching television. He jumped off the couch and ran outside in flip flops to see what happened.
“As soon as I came, I see someone on the ground,” he said. “People are nursing him, crying and arguing.”
Kenna McIntire came out shortly after and was shaken by the sight of first responders lifting an unconscious woman into an ambulance as people huddled and cried.
The couple said they hear gunshots in their neighborhood almost daily, but never right outside their front door.
“It was really heartbreaking to hear and see,” Kenna McIntire said.
About 100 law enforcement vehicles were on the scene behind, and helicopters flew overhead. Neighbors huddled in blankets near a taco truck, watching officers work and waiting for updates.
Police said they are reviewing license plate readers and surveillance video from nearby businesses for the suspects.
“This shouldn’t have happened outside of a place of worship. This shouldn’t have happened outside of a celebration of life,” said Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
The Salt Lake City-based church is cooperating with law enforcement and said it is grateful for the quick efforts of first responders.
“We extend prayers for all those affected by this tragedy and express our deep concern that any sacred space of worship should be subjected to violence of any kind,” church spokesman 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 took place can be found tucked away in neighborhoods around the city and state.
Mormons have been on high alert since four people were killed when a former Marine opened fire on one of their churches in Michigan in September and set it on fire. 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 was previously misspelled by Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd.
___ Billeaud reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao contributed from Princeton, New Jersey.