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 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Two people were killed and six others were injured, including five who were hospitalized under police protection, in a shooting in the church parking lot on Thursday. Investigators say the shooting stemmed from a dispute between people who knew each other and were attending a funeral. As of Thursday afternoon, a day after the shooting, 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, no matter what the relationship,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said Thursday morning. “We all have to protect those places. We should all respect those places.” All those killed in the shooting were adults. Police said at least three of the injured were in serious condition. The dead were 46-year-old Waya Tulikihifo and 38-year-old Sione Bhatuwei.
Police said they do not believe the shooting was random or motivated by animosity against Mormons.
The red brick church in the northwest Salt Lake City neighborhood serves a mostly Tongan congregation and holds regular worship services in their native language, according to its website. Missionaries from 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 Neyafu, Tonga’s second largest city, and began evangelizing the islands. Dozens of other schools were started by the missionaries and seven of them are open. Church membership has grown to 68,000 and 175 congregations. “Since the 19th century, the church has had a really, really important place in Tongan society. Whoever you ask, between one-third and two-thirds of everyone in Tonga is a member of the LDS Church,” said Matthew Bowman, a Claremont Graduate University professor specializing in American religious history. On Wednesday, residents of a housing complex next to the church came out to help the victims and comfort dozens of people attending the funeral of the man, who was not identified by police.
Brennan McIntyre said he and his wife, Kenna, were watching TV when they heard several loud gunshots coming from their apartment across the church parking lot. He jumped off the couch and ran outside in flip-flop sandals to see what happened.
He said, ‘When I reached, I saw someone on the ground. “People are looking at him and crying and arguing.”
Kenna McIntyre soon came outside and was shocked to see first responders lifting an unconscious woman into an ambulance as people surrounded her and cried.
The couple said they hear gunshots in their neighborhood almost daily, but never outside their door.
“It was really heartbreaking to hear and see,” said Kenna McIntyre.
About 100 law enforcement vehicles were at the scene, and helicopters flew overhead. Neighbors huddled on blankets near the taco truck watching officers work and waiting for updates.
Police said they are reviewing license plate readers and surveillance video from nearby businesses in search of the suspect.
“This should never happen outside of a place of worship. It should never happen outside of a celebration of life,” said Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
The church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, was cooperating with law enforcement and said it was grateful for the quick efforts of first responders.
Church spokesman Sam Penrod said: “We pray for all those affected by this tragedy and are deeply concerned that any holy place intended for worship should be subjected to any form of violence.”
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 in neighborhoods around the city and state.
Mormons have been on high alert since a former Marine opened fire at one of their churches in Michigan in September, killing four people. 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.
___ reported from Billows Phoenix. Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao contributed from Princeton, New Jersey.
