Murder charge filed in 2011 concert shooting death


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SOUTH SALT LAKE — Criminal charges were filed Tuesday in the 2011 shooting death of a 19-year-old man at a concert in South Salt Lake.

Anthony Derek Long Soldier, 36, was charged in 3rd District Court with murder in the death of Stephen Angel Lopez on Oct. 1, 2011. Long Soldier also faces one count of discharge of a firearm with serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony. Both charges are associated with gang activity and subject to potential enhanced penalties.

The melee at the Arbat Reception Hall, 375 E. 3300 South, in the wake of the shooting left an additional five people hospitalized after either being shot, stabbed or injured while trying to flee in a vehicle and crashing, police said at the time. Charges weren't filed in Lopez's death until the case was reopened by a joint Cold Case Homicide Task Force created by the Unified Police Department and South Salt Lake Police Department

Long Soldier and Lopez were both at a rap concert that "brought a large number of known rival gang members to the hall" that night, charging documents state. Police say Lopez was confronted by another man, Isaac Gallegos, who demanded to know where he was from.

Lopez replied with the name of the gang he was affiliated with. Gallegos responded by saying that was the wrong gang and then punched Lopez in the face, the charges state.

A witness told police that Lopez, who was unarmed, attempted to get away but found the exit blocked by other concertgoers leaving the hall. As Gallegos moved to hit Lopez again, Long Soldier — a fellow gang member of Gallegos who was standing nearby with a gun visible in his waistband — walked up and shot Lopez, according to the charges.

Long Soldier also fired a round toward the crowd leaving the hall, the witness said. Another concertgoer, Joseph Gates, was shot in the arm.

Lopez died at Intermountain Medical Center the next day of a single gunshot wound to the chest.

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A woman at the concert told police that, as she was leaving, she saw a Native American man and another man running out of the hall. A man who was driving by reported seeing a man outside the hall firing a gun into the air and then running on 3300 South, according to charging documents.

An additional witness told police that Long Soldier came to his house with a group of people and said he shot Lopez, while another witness said Long Soldier said the next day he had fired shots into the crowd before running east on 3300 South to the spot where he hid his gun in some bushes, the charges state. That man allegedly identified Long Soldier from a photo array.

Long Soldier is currently incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania, according to the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.

According to a search of Utah State Court records, Long Soldier was found guilty of drug possession in 2012 and 2009. He was convicted in two separate cases in 2002 of drug distribution. He was also convicted that year of interfering with an officer and attempted criminal mischief.

In 2001, Long Soldier pleaded no contest to simple assault and was found guilty in separate cases of assault by a prisoner, unlawful alcohol possession by a minor, disorderly conduct and interfering with an arrest, as well as unlawful alcohol possession by a minor and giving false personal information to a police officer.

He was also convicted in 2000 of attempted assault by a prisoner, and in 1999 of assault with substantial bodily injury.

Numerous other charges were filed and dismissed through the years.

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McKenzie Romero

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