Police have arrested a suspect in a Salt Lake City killing after a standoff in Magna early Wednesday.
Early Monday morning, a man who was living in a tent in a homeless encampment near 900 South and 500 West — Ryan Pendergrast, 21 — was shot to death. According to a probable cause statement, Pendergrast and a woman who also lived in the tent were approached by the 33-year-old suspect, who pulled out a gun and “placed the barrel of the firearm directly on the cheek” of the woman, demanding that she get in his car with him.
The woman resisted, and, according to police, when Pendergrast came out of the tent, the suspect shot him once in the chest, killing him. The suspect then drove off in his car.
The woman identified the suspect as a former boyfriend with whom she had lived.
Salt Lake City police received a tip that the suspect was at a Magna apartment near 2900 South and 8400 West. When officers arrived at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday, the suspect ran into the apartment and refused to come out. A SWAT team negotiated with him for about 12 hours before firing tear gas into the apartment. The suspect came out and was arrested.
Neither the suspect nor his 14-year-old son, who was in the apartment during the standoff, were injured, according to police. The suspect was booked into the Salt Lake County jail for investigation of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, obstruction of justice, possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person and felony discharge of a weapon. He is being held without bail.
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name suspects before they have been formally charged.
