Man who accidentally killed brother offers advice after Kaysville shooting


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SALT LAKE CITY — A man who as a child accidentally shot and killed his brother is offering advice to the family of the 12-year-old Kaysville girl who police say was also accidentally shot and killed by a younger family member.

“It’s not the weight that you’re going to carry, it’s the way you’re going to carry it,” said Scott Allen, who has been carrying the weight for more than two decades.

“I knew my brother was still with me,” he said.

His brother, Mike, was 20 years old when Scott was 10 years old, and Scott looked up to him.

“He was everything I wanted to be,” he said.

One night, the brothers and their 11-year-old sister were wrestling in their American Fork home. Allen said he grabbed a rifle he had seen hidden underneath a bunk bed. Not knowing it was still loaded, he shot his brother in the chest.

“I smelled the sulfur and I felt it kick, but I just didn’t believe it,” Allen said.

His brother died that night in their home.

Allen said he was suicidal for several years but began finding his self-worth again by working. He mowed lawns, shoveled snow — did anything to feel like he was helping someone.

“Instead of submitting to the sadness and the pain, try to find a way to serve someone else,” he said.

Years later, Scott has found another way to serve. The day Adelaide Clinger was accidentally shot and killed was also the 29th anniversary of his brother's death.

Allen wants Clinger's family member who police said pulled the trigger to find forgiveness for himself or herself.

“Don’t lose yourself to the grief,” he said.

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