Carnival argument shooting kills 3 in an unusually violent weekend for Salt Lake City area
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) **NOT AN AP MEMBER**
A 16-year-old boy shot five people in a confrontation between two groups at a carnival in a Salt Lake City suburb Sunday, killing three of them including an 8-month-old infant, police said.
The shooting in West Valley City a day after an apparently unrelated shooting killed a man at a 'No Kings' protest made for an unusually violent weekend in the Salt Lake City area.
Police working at WestFest at Centennial Park, about 6 miles (10 kilometres) southwest of downtown Salt Lake City, saw the two groups Sunday night.
'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 an 18-year-old man in one of the groups, police said. Besides the infant, a 41-year-old woman bystander also was killed.
Two other teens, a 17-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, were both hit in the arm, police said. It was not clear if they were connected to the groups involved.
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, police said. His name would not be released because he was a juvenile, West Valley City spokesperson Roxeanne Vainuku said at a news conference late Sunday.
Police were interviewing witnesses to find out more about what happened, Vainuku said.
'We don't know yet if this was gang related. We do know that we have two groups of people who were having some sort of a verbal altercation,' Vainuku said.
An estimated 10,000 people were at the carnival, a celebration of the establishment of West Valley City and of its cultural diversity.
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.
Article by Mead Gruver.
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