Police investigating quadruple homicide in Grantsville

Grantsville • Four members of a Utah family, including three children, are dead and a fifth is in the hospital after a family member opened fire Friday evening inside a Grantsville residence, according to local police.

The teenage male suspect was taken into custody at a Tooele hospital after he was driven there, along with the surviving victim, by a third person who happened to visit the home following the shooting, said Grantsville police Cpl. Rhonda Fields. Police believe no one else participated in the apparent homicides and there is no further threat to the public.

“It’s a tragic event anytime something of this nature happens. It affects the community; it doesn’t matter if it’s a small city or a big city,” said Brent Marshall, the mayor of the city located 35 miles west of Salt Lake City. “People know each other and that has an emotional effect on everybody.”

[Read more: Grantsville community raises $70,000 for family whose members were killed]

Few details were available Saturday while various law enforcement agencies continued investigating the shooting, which occurred in a subdivision on the east side of this quiet, once bucolic Tooele County city of about 10,000 under the snow-covered Stansbury Mountains. Police have not released the victims’ ages, names or precise relationships with each other and the alleged shooter.

“We’re trying to make a formal identification of all of our victims,” Fields said. “We want to make sure that we can establish their identification and their proper relationship to all of those involved, and until we’re able to do that, we’re not able to release personal information.”

Fields confirmed all the victims lived together at the home, but she had no information on the shooter’s possible motive. The suspect is not speaking with police and the investigators have not questioned the surviving victim, who remained in stable condition at Mountain West Medical Center in Tooele, according to Fields.

“We’re having to rely on the medical examiner’s office to help us get a formal identification, which takes a little bit more time than just being able to ask people questions,” she said.

Investigators worked through the night and into the morning gathering evidence, including the handgun allegedly used in the slayings.

“They are extremely exhausted,” Marshall said. “The officers did a very professional job.”

By Saturday afternoon, however, the two-story home was quiet and offered no outward indication of the violence or the intense police activity. The yellow crime scene tape had been removed. Three vehicles were parked in the driveway, including a white van which bore decal figures on the rear window indicating a family made up of a mom and dad, five children and two pets.

Friday's rampage was among the state's worst mass shootings and Grantsville's first homicide in years.

“Our hearts are broken by the horrible news coming out Grantsville tonight. We mourn over the loss of innocent lives,” Utah Gov. Gary Herbert tweeted late Friday. “Parents and grandparents, secure your firearms! Everyone, hug your loved ones tight. And remember love, not hate, will heal broken individuals and families.”

A domestic dispute in 2001 left three dead, including the shooter, at a burger shop not far from Friday’s killings.

Jason Killian, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stake the family belonged to, described the Grantsville community as “devastated" by the murders.

“There are no words to describe our heartbreak and grief,” Killian said in a statement. "We are devastated and so deeply saddened by what has occurred. We love this family, and will support them and the rest of this small community as we mourn together. "

By Saturday afternoon, however, the two-story home was quiet and offered no outward indication of the violence or the intense police activity. The yellow crime scene tape had been removed. Three vehicles were parked in the driveway, including a white van which bore decal figures on the rear window indicating a family made up of a mom and dad, five children and two pets.

“Unless we’re able to provide accurate information, it’s better to not provide information," Fields said. "We’re dealing with four juveniles in a community of our size. Something that we have to be concerned about is we have a potential of four different schools and a number of children that are going to be affected by this.”

Fields said information about the family has been posted on social media in the wake of the slayings.

“Whether that information is accurate or inaccurate, it affects everybody that reads it,” she said. “And so we’re trying to be as forthcoming with information while being accurate at the same time.”

Police were alerted to Friday’s shooting at around 7 p.m. by a third party, whom police have declined to identify.

“That person was completely unrelated to the scene, completely unrelated to all the subjects involved and arrived at the scene for a completely different matter and was asked to assist by driving to the hospital,” Fields said. While en route to Mountain West Medical Center about 10 miles away, the driver called 911.

Police responded to the home at 93 Eastmoor Drive to find a boy, two girls and an adult female deceased, according to Fields. Officers also rushed to the hospital to find the alleged shooter unharmed.

“The suspect was taken into custody without any problems,” Fields said. The murder weapon was recovered at the crime scene, but police have yet to verify its ownership, she said.

Assisting Grantsville police Friday were the Tooele police, Tooele County sheriff's deputies and Utah Highway Patrol.

The Utah Department of Public Safety and the State Crime Lab are now helping Grantsville police process evidence recovered in the home.

“We appreciate the agencies that came in and helped us in this unfortunate incident,” Marshall said. “This tragedy isn’t something that any law enforcement agency would want to have to handle.”