A boy armed with a gun killed three children and a woman inside a Utah home, then accompanied a fifth victim to a hospital where he was arrested, police said Saturday.
Police were still trying to piece together who’s who and what happened leading up to Friday night’s shooting in Grantsville, a town of 11,000 about 35 miles west of Salt Lake City. Investigators believe the victims are all related to one another.
“We’re trying to make certain that we verify people’s relationships among the deceased and the survivor,” Grantsville Police Cpl. Rhonda Fields told The Associated Press Saturday. “As for motive, we don’t have any of that.”
The boy faces 10 charges, the most serious being aggravated homicide, she said. Police were not able to release his identity because he has been charged as a juvenile and Fields declined to release any additional details about him.
Officials said he is the only suspect. His relationship to the victims was not immediately clear.
The names of the victims have not been released.
Police responded to a call of shots fired inside at home at approximately 7 p.m. Friday. When officers arrived, they found the bodies of two girls, a boy, and a woman, Fields said.
The shooter and a fifth shooting victim were gone, she said. Authorities later discovered that a person who arrived at the house after the shooting drove the suspect and the surviving victim to a nearby hospital, Fields said.
Officers arrested the boy at the hospital. He was being held at a youth detention facility.
The fifth victim had sustained a gunshot wound, was in stable condition and expected to survive, Fields said.
The person who drove them to the hospital was not involved in shooting, she said.
Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall said the shooting happened in a very quiet neighborhood, the Deseret News reported.
“It’s an unfortunate tragedy that has taken place here this evening,” Marshall said. “Any time you have children involved in something, it becomes very emotional, very fast.”
@KatRamsland “It’s an unfortunate tragedy that has taken place here this evening,” Marshall said. “And I’m sure it will take days or even longer to try and piece together what brought all of this one and why it happened, if we ever get to know why it happened. It’s upsetting.
— Kelly Cash (@Enginethatcan) January 18, 2020
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert released a statement through Twitter.
“Our hearts are broken by the horrible news coming out of Grantsville tonight,” he said. “We mourn over the loss of innocent lives.
By Matt Volz
