Salt Lake City police arrested a 17-year-old charged with murder in connection with a fatal downtown stabbing earlier this year, officials announced Tuesday.
The April 30 stabbing happened at about 2:30 a.m. at 32 E. Exchange Place in Salt Lake City. When officers arrived, they found a large crowd leaving the area as well as a man, identified as 28-year-old Oscar Vera, wounded on the ground, according to a news release.
Vera was taken to a hospital where he later died, according to the release.
Authorities believe Vera was stabbed by 17-year-old Julian Lopez during a large fight that broke out as people were leaving a nearby nightclub. Police did not identify the teen Tuesday because he is a minor, but The Salt Lake Tribune is identifying him because he was charged as an adult in the case, according to the Salt Lake County district attorney’s office.
Days after the stabbing, but before he had been charged with that fatal assault, Lopez was charged May 3 in connection with a separate 2022 homicide, court records indicate.
Lopez was already being held in the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center on the 2022 case when the arrest warrant in connection with the stabbing was served, the release stated. He now is in custody on two homicide cases.
Named as co-defendants in the April stabbing are 19-year-old Magaly Bravo and 20-year-old Gabriel Gonzalez, court records show. Bravo was charged with obstruction of justice on July 5 after police said she gave detectives a “misleading” statement about what happened the night of the stabbing.
Gonzalez was also charged with obstruction of justice on July 5 because based on a review of the evidence, court documents say, he was “deceptive” during his interview with police.
Named as co-defendants in the 2022 homicide are two individuals who were juveniles at the time. In that case, Lopez was charged with murder in the shooting death of 23-year-old Elijah Isaiah Brown at a birthday party.
Since at least June, Salt Lake City police have ramped up patrol efforts downtown after a series of four shootings unfolded over a single weekend. One of the shootings, on June 4, left 22-year-old Halapaini Latu Moala dead.
The concentrated patrols will remain at least through the summer and are meant to better deter and respond to crime, police say. According to crime statistics compiled by Salt Lake City police, as of Sunday, detectives have investigated three homicides so far this year in District 4, which includes downtown.
The first homicide in District 4 happened April 2, when police say 63-year-old Larry Johnson killed his wife, 71-year-old Victoria Johnson, in their apartment. The second was the April 30 stabbing, followed by the June 4 shooting.
As of July 16 last year, detectives had investigated two homicides in the district.
