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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Latest on a teenager accused of killing a state member at a southern Utah youth treatment center (all times local):
3:12 p.m.
A southern Utah sheriff says a teenager accused of killing a staff member at a youth treatment center attacked the worker because he wanted to leave the ranch, not because of a grudge with the man.
Garfield County Sheriff James Perkins said Wednesday that the 17-year-old suspect from Arizona had just checked in last week to the Turn-About Ranch in Escalante.
Perkins says the teen used a weapon to hit 61-year-old Jimmy Woolsey multiple times in a violent attack Tuesday morning. Perkins declined to say what kind of weapon was used. He said Woolsey died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Perkins says his agency has responded a few times over the years to youth wandering off from the treatment center but said the working cattle ranch for troubled youth is usually peaceful.
He says the teen will likely be charged with murder.
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12:59 p.m.
Utah police are identifying a worker they say was killed in an attack by a teenage student at a youth treatment center.
The Garfield County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that 61-year-old Jimmy Woolsey of Escalante died after the assault at the Turn-About Ranch. Authorities say the 17-year-old suspect also beat a second worker who blocked him from entering a building full of people. She was hospitalized in stable condition.
The teen was arrested after deputies on their way to the ranch spotted him driving a worker's stolen car into nearby Escalante, located about 300 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Program leaders have said Woolsey was dedicated to young people in the program and had a positive impact on many students.
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