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TAYLORSVILLE — David Hall said it sounded like fireworks were going off in his young daughter's bedroom.
"I came through the door and all I could see is dust, glass, dust, fragmented window, fragmented blinds, and I'm like, 'OK, somebody just lit off a pipe bomb or something like that," Hall said.
But Hall quickly learned that a pipe bomb hadn't exploded, but two gunmen had just unloaded at least 20 rounds into his apartment, narrowly missing his sleeping 11-month-old daughter in one room and 2-year-old son in the other.
Just after 4 a.m. Tuesday, a witness saw a silver car pull up to the Atherton Park Apartments, 4545 S. Atherton Drive (1075 West). Two men got out and opened fire.
"Some of the rounds went through an apartment window and then through another wall and into a second bedroom. In the first bedroom there was an 11-month-old sleeping and in the second bedroom there was a 2-year-old sleeping," said Unified Deputy Police Chief Justin Hoyal.
No one was injured, but Hoyal said the shots "narrowly missed" the two children. Detectives recovered more than 20 shell casings at the scene.
"They basically just came after kids. Cowards," Hall said. "They wanted to kill some people. They wanted us dead."
Hall was sleeping in the living room with his wife, who is pregnant with their third child. If he had been in the bedroom and sat up, the bullets would have struck him. The only thing that saved his daughter, he said, was her crib was pressed directly against the wall under the window, and the exterior wall below the window sill is made of brick.
The window above the crib was filled with bullet holes Tuesday as was the wall on the other side of the room. Broken pieces of glass fell into the crib but the baby was physically unharmed. Hall, however, said when he came into his daughter's room, she was shaking and crying "like she never had before."
"I can't believe that somebody thinks that's an OK thing to do. Those slugs are serious," he said. "This is not how you act out. You could have killed children who could have lost their whole future."
The two gunmen seemed to be aiming for Hall's apartment, Hoyal said. But he did not know if Hall's family were the intended targets.
Hall said he has only lived in the apartment for three months. Neighbors told him that one of the previous tenants may have been dealing drugs from his apartment, something Hall never suspected when he moved in.
"You don't think about that when you're shopping for an apartment. You know, you're just trying to get into a place to live and a place to settle," he said. "And then all of a sudden you find out that possibly somebody who lived in the apartment before you was involved in gang violence or drug dealing … and suddenly your family is subjected to whatever is going on there."
Hall said he is frustrated by what happened but extremely grateful his children were not harmed. He spent most of Tuesday packing his belongings and moving. His family temporarily moved into his mother's house until they can find a new apartment.
"We're just grateful. We're lucky," he said.
Investigators were trying to determine a motive for the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 801-743-7000.
Contributing: Sandra Yi
