Eight month old among three people killed in WestFest shooting
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah () — West Valley City Police confirm that three people have been killed and two injured in a shooting at WestFest late Sunday evening.
Roxanne Vainuku with West Valley City Police confirms that a total of five people were shot, killing three. The incident started when two groups got into a verbal argument. As police approached the scene to break up the fight, a 16-year-old suspect allegedly pulled out a gun and opened fire.
A West Valley Police officer responded by drawing his weapon and firing but did not hit the suspect.
The victims killed in the shooting were identified as an 18-year-old male, a 41-year-old female and an 8-month-old infant. Police say the 41-year-old woman and the infant were bystanders at West Fest and not involved in the altercation. The 18-year-old was in one of the groups involved in the fight and died.
Two teens, a 17-year-old female and a 15-year-old male, were also struck by gunfire in the arm. Police said it is currently unclear if they were connected to either of the two groups.
The West Valley Police Department said one officer fired his gun but did not hit the 16-year-old suspect. That suspect has been detained and taken into custody by police.
This is a developing story. ABC4 will update this post as new information becomes available.
Attacks between Israel and Iran intensify
Republicans face critical week on Trump megabill
Critical fire weather conditions for southern Utah today as hot and windy weather continues
Eight month old among three people killed in WestFest shooting
Utahns remember local fashion designer killed in protest
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
17 minutes ago
- CNN
Ex-Israeli Defense Minister's message to Trump
Ex-Israeli Defense Minister's message to Trump Benny Gantz, Chairman of Israel's National Unity Party, and the former Minister of Defense speaks to CNN's Anderson Cooper following Israel's attack on Iran. 01:08 - Source: CNN Vertical Politics of the Day 13 videos Ex-Israeli Defense Minister's message to Trump Benny Gantz, Chairman of Israel's National Unity Party, and the former Minister of Defense speaks to CNN's Anderson Cooper following Israel's attack on Iran. 01:08 - Source: CNN Minnesota suspect went to 4 state lawmaker homes night of shootings The suspect in the killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in addition to the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife also visited two more politicians' homes, according to authorities. 02:08 - Source: CNN Trump slams G7 for kicking out Russia President Donald Trump kicked off his visit to the G7 summit in Canada by criticizing nations for kicking out Russia eleven years ago. 00:36 - Source: CNN CNN's Wolf Blitzer asks Herzog why Israel struck Iran now The deadly conflict between Israel and Iran continues as the IDF says it destroyed more than 120 of Iran's missile launchers, which it said is about a third of its total. Israeli President Isaac Herzog speaks with CNN about why Israel struck Iran now. 00:46 - Source: CNN Minnesota Senator: Rise in political threats 'out of hand' Sen. Amy Klobuchar spoke out against online threats aimed at lawmakers following the shooting deaths of State Rep. Melissa Hortman, the leading Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband. Gov. Tim Walz described the incident as a 'politically motivated assassination' and said the same individual shot Democratic State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, both of whom survived. 01:25 - Source: CNN Trump praises US Army during military parade 01:13 - Source: CNN Trump presides over military parade CNN's Kristen Holmes reports as soldiers, tanks and fighting vehicles paraded through the streets of Washington, DC, to celebrate the US Army's 250th anniversary. 00:31 - Source: CNN 'No Kings' protesters rally across the country CNN spoke to several protesters among the millions of Americans who are expected to attend 'No Kings' protests across the country on Saturday to denounce what organizers describe as President Donald Trump's authoritarian policies and 'militarization of our democracy.' 01:11 - Source: CNN Why Trump's military parade is a big deal CNN's Brianna Keilar dives into the history of US military parades, and why the latest one set for June 14th is significant. 02:35 - Source: CNN 'This is not normal': Sen. Padilla explains his removal from DHS event CNN's Erin Burnett speaks with Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) after he was forcibly removed from a Department of Homeland Security press conference in California. 02:05 - Source: CNN Democrats slam Trump's military deployment to LA During a House hearing focused on 'sanctuary state' policies, Democrats slammed President Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard and Marines to California amid protests over the administration's immigration enforcement policies. 00:46 - Source: CNN Trump draws boos and cheers at Kennedy Center President Donald Trump drew charged reactions of both admiration and ire at the Kennedy Center's opening night of "Les Misérables." 00:29 - Source: CNN Trump says why his second term is different from the first In an interview with The New York Post's Pod Force One, President Trump explained why he "can be stronger on an attack on Los Angeles" in his second term compared to his first. Trump also said he told Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, he planned to deploy National Guard troops before doing so. 01:09 - Source: CNN
22 minutes ago
ICE is using no-bid contracts, boosting big firms, to get more detention beds
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Leavenworth, Kansas, occupies a mythic space in American crime, its name alone evoking a short hand for serving hard time. The federal penitentiary housed gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly — in a building so storied that it inspired the term 'the big house.' Now Kansas' oldest city could soon be detaining far less famous people, migrants swept up in President Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations of those living in the U.S. illegally. The federal government has signed a deal with the private prison firm CoreCivic Corp. to reopen a 1,033-bed prison in Leavenworth as part of a surge of contracts U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued without seeking competitive bids. ICE has cited a 'compelling urgency' for thousands more detention beds, and its efforts have sent profit estimates soaring for politically connected private companies, including CoreCivic, based in the Nashville, Tennessee, area and another giant firm, The Geo Group Inc., headquartered in southern Florida. That push faces resistance. Leavenworth filed a lawsuit against CoreCivic after it tried to reopen without city officials signing off on the deal, quoting a federal judge's past description of the now-shuttered prison as 'a hell hole." The case in Leavenworth serves as another test of the limits of the Republican president's unusually aggressive tactics to force migrant removals. To get more detention beds, the Trump administration has modified dozens of existing agreements with contractors and used no-bid contracts. One pays $73 million to a company led by former federal immigration officials for 'immigration enforcement support teams' to handle administrative tasks, such as helping coordinate removals, triaging complaints or telling ICE if someone is a risk to community safety. Just last week , Geo Group announced that ICE modified a contract for an existing detention center in southeastern Georgia so that the company could reopen an idle prison on adjacent land to hold 1,868 migrants — and earn $66 million in annual revenue. 'Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now,' said CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger during an earnings call last month with shareholders. A tax-cutting and budget reconciliation measure approved last month by the House includes $45 billion over four years for immigrant detention, a threefold spending increase. The Senate is now considering that legislation. When Trump started his second term in January, CoreCivic and Geo had around 20 idle facilities, partly because of sentencing reforms that reduced prison populations. But the Trump administration wants to more than double the existing 41,000 beds for detaining migrants to at least 100,000 beds and — if private prison executives' predictions are accurate — possibly to more than 150,000. ICE declared a national emergency on the U.S. border with Mexico as part of its justification for authorizing nine five-year contracts for a combined 10,312 beds without 'Full and Open Competition.' Only three of the nine potential facilities were listed in ICE's document: Leavenworth, a 2,560-bed CoreCivic-owned facility in California City, California, and an 1,800-bed Geo-owned prison in Baldwin, Michigan. The agreement for the Leavenworth facility hasn't been released, nor have documents for the other two sites. CoreCivic and Geo Group officials said last month on earnings calls that ICE used what are known as letter contracts, meant to speed things up when time is critical. Charles Tiefer, a contract expert and professor emeritus of law at the University of Baltimore Law School, said letter contracts normally are reserved for minor matters, not the big changes he sees ICE making to previous agreements. 'I think that a letter contract is a pathetic way to make big important contracts,' he said. CoreCivic's Leavenworth facility quickly became a priority for ICE and the company because of its central location. Leavenworth, with 37,000 residents, is only 10 miles (16 kilometers) to the west of the Kansas City International Airport. The facility would hold men and women and is within ICE's area of operations for Chicago, 420 miles (676 kilometers) to the northeast. 'That would mean that people targeted in the Chicago area and in Illinois would end up going to this facility down in Kansas,' said Jesse Franzblau, a senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center. Prisons have long been an important part of Leavenworth's economy, employing hundreds of workers to guard prisoners held in two military facilities, the nation's first federal penitentiary, a Kansas correctional facility and a county jail within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of city hall. The Leavenworth area's politics might have been expected to help CoreCivic. Trump carried its county by more than 20 percentage points in each of his three campaigns for president. But skeptical city officials argue that CoreCivic needs a special use permit to reopen its facility. CoreCivic disagrees, saying that it doesn't because it never abandoned the facility and that the permitting process would take too long. Leavenworth sued the company to force it to get one, and a state-court judge last week issued an order requiring it. An attorney for the city, Joe Hatley, said the legal fight indicates how much ill will CoreCivic generated when it held criminal suspects there for trials in federal court for the U.S. Marshals Service. In late 2021, CoreCivic stopped housing pretrial detainees in its Leavenworth facility after then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to curb the use of private prisons. In the months before the closure, the American Civil Liberties Union and federal public defenders detailed stabbings, suicides, a homicide and inmate rights violations in a letter to the White House. CoreCivic responded at the time that the claims were 'false and defamatory.' Vacancies among correctional officers were as high as 23%, according to a Department of Justice report from 2017. 'It was just mayhem,' recalled William Rogers, who worked as a guard at the CoreCivic facility in Leavenworth from 2016 through 2020. He said repeated assaults sent him to the emergency room three times, including once after a blow to the head that required 14 staples. When Leavenworth sued CoreCivic, it opened its lawsuit with a quote from U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson — an appointee of President George W. Bush, a Republican — who said of the prison: 'The only way I could describe it frankly, what's going on at CoreCivic right now is it's an absolute hell hole.' The city's lawsuit described detainees locked in showers as punishment. It said that sheets and towels from the facility clogged up the wastewater system and that CoreCivic impeded the city police force's ability to investigate sexual assaults and other violent crimes. The facility had no inmates when CoreCivic gave reporters a tour earlier this year, and it looked scrubbed top to bottom and the smell of disinfectant hung in the air. One unit for inmates had a painting on one wall featuring a covered wagon. During the tour, when asked about the allegations of past problems, Misty Mackey, a longtime CoreCivic employee who was tapped to serve as warden there, apologized for past employees' experiences and said the company officials 'do our best to make sure that we learn from different situations.' Besides CoreCivic's Leavenworth prison, other once-shuttered facilities could come online near major immigrant population centers, from New York to Los Angeles, to help Trump fulfill his deportation plans. ICE wants to reopen existing facilities because it's faster than building new ones, said Marcela Hernandez, the organizing director for the Detention Watch Network, which has organized nationwide protests against ICE detention. Counties often lease out jail space for immigrant detention, but ICE said some jurisdictions have passed ordinances barring that. ICE has used contract modifications to reopen shuttered lockups like the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall Facility in Newark, New Jersey, and a 2,500-bed facility in Dilley, Texas, offering no explanations why new, competitively bid contracts weren't sought. The Newark facility, with its own history of problems, resumed intakes May 1, and disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who previously was arrested there and accused of trespassing, cited reports of a possible uprising, and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed four escapes. The contract modification for Dilley, which was built to hold families and resumed operations in March, calls its units 'neighborhoods' and gives them names like Brown Bear and Blue Butterfly. The financial details for the Newark and Dilley contract modifications are blacked out in online copies, as they for more than 50 other agreements ICE has signed since Trump took office. ICE didn't respond to a request for comment. Private prison executives are forecasting hundreds of millions of dollars in new ICE profits. Since Trump's reelection in November, CoreCivic's stock has risen in price by 56% and Geo's by 73%. 'It's the gold rush,' Michael A. Hallett, a professor of criminal justice at the University of North Florida who studies private prisons. 'All of a sudden, demand is spiraling. And when you're the only provider that can meet demand, you can pretty much set your terms.' Geo's former lobbyist Pam Bondi is now the U.S. attorney general. It anticipates that all of its idle prisons will be activated this year, its executive chairman, George Zoley, told shareholders. CoreCivic, which along with Geo donated millions of dollars to largely GOP candidates at all levels of government and national political groups, is equally optimistic. It began daily talks with the Trump administration immediately after the election in November, said Hininger. CoreCivic officials said ICE's letter contracts provide initial funding to begin reopening facilities while the company negotiates a longer-term deal. The Leavenworth deal is worth $4.2 million a month to the company, it disclosed in a court filing. Tiefer, who served on an independent commission established to study government contracting for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said ICE is "placing a very dicey long-term bet' because of its past problems and said ICE is giving CoreCivic 'the keys to the treasury' without competition. But financial analysts on company earnings calls have been delighted. When CoreCivic announced its letter contracts, Joe Gomes, of the financial services firm Noble Capital Markets, responded with, 'Great news." 'Are you hiding any more of them on us?' he asked.
34 minutes ago
Members of Congress want more security after Minnesota lawmaker shootings
Senators will be briefed by law enforcement on Tuesday on safety and security after the murder of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and the wounding of another and his wife on Saturday. House Republicans held a conference call, which was described as "tense," on Saturday with the House sergeant at arms and U.S. Capitol Police to discuss their concerns, multiple sources familiar with the call told ABC News. Several Republicans said on the one-hour call that they feel unsafe in their home districts and want more protection, sources said. The key source of contention in particular was the request of police outside their homes at all times and law enforcement authorities saying they need more funding from Congress to provide that. Senators will be briefed by the Senate sergeant at arms and Capitol Police on Tuesday morning, two sources familiar told ABC News, after it was requested by Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. House Democrats are expected to have a similar call in the coming days. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement Saturday that he asked the sergeant at arms and Capitol Police to "ensure the safety" of the Minnesota delegation and members of Congress "across the country." While House and Senate leadership are provided with a security detail, rank-and-file members are not routinely protected unless there is a specific threat. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar told ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday that political violence is a "rampant problem." Fellow Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith told NBC News on Sunday, "I don't want to think that I have to a personal security detail everywhere I go, but I think we really have to look at the situation that we're in. "This is no way for our government to work when people, any number of us, feel this kind of threat," she said. Rep. Jared Moskowitz said he might force a vote on a "secret session" in the House to discuss security and so that "members can handle this ourselves." Vance Boelter, 57, faces multiple federal charges in the killing of Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in "political assassinations," acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson said Monday. In a 20-page affidavit, prosecutors outlined how they say Boelter "embarked on a planned campaign of stalking and violence, designed to inflict fear, injure and kill members of the Minnesota state legislature and their families." He allegedly had firearms and a list of 45 elected officials, "mostly or all Democrats," according to prosecutors. Authorities say Boelter traveled to the homes of at least four public officials during the early morning hours of Saturday before the killings. The number of threats and "concerning statements" against members of Congress, their families and staffs has risen for the past two years, according to Capitol Police, which pointed out that threats tend to increase during election years. The Capitol Police's Threat Assessment Section investigated 9,474 threats and statements in 2024 and 8,008. It investigated 3,939 cases in 2017.
