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VERNAL — Authorities in Uintah County are investigating a stabbing Friday that left one man in critical condition and may have involved shots being fired before police arrived.
Officers were dispatched to a report of an injured person near 1015 S. Vernal Ave. about 7:40 a.m., according to Uintah County Sheriff's Cpl. Brian Fletcher. They found a man on the side of the road with multiple stab wounds, Fletcher said.
The injured man, who lives in one of a collection of mobile homes and trailers at 1070 S. Vernal Ave., was taken to Ashley Regional Medical Center, where he underwent surgery, according to police sources.
Investigators expect to be at the scene "for the next several hours," according to Uintah County Sheriff's Cpl. Brian Fletcher.
People living near 1015 South and Vernal Avenue can expect to see officers coming to and going from the scene during that time, Fletcher said. The scene is secure and there is no threat there, he said.
Officers are simply using the mobile command post at that location as a briefing area for an ongoing investigation that has spread to several locations in the county, according to Fletcher. Authorities remain confident that there is no outstanding threat to the community at this time, he said.
Anthony Barrett, who lives just north of the spot where the man was found, said he heard two gunshots while he was eating his breakfast.
"I asked my dad, 'Were those gun shots?' and he said, 'Yep,'" Barrett said. "I asked him, 'I said, 'Should I go outside?' He said, 'Nope. Stay here. Stay away from the windows.'"
Barrett's father, Taygon Tanner, said he provided investigators with video from his home surveillance system.
"I've got eight cameras all the way around the whole house, so anything that happened (the cameras) could have gotten," Tanner said.
Fletcher would not confirm whether any shots were fired; however, deputies were seen photographing a small semiautomatic handgun and a pile of bloody clothes on the shoulder of Vernal Avenue near the spot where the injured man was found.
Investigators from the Uintah County Sheriff's Office and the Vernal and Naples police departments were still working the crime scene Friday, which stretches back into the property where the injured man lives.
The name of the man who was stabbed is not being released. Fletcher said the man was in critical but stable condition Friday night.
