Father accused of killing baby charged with murder

Father accused of killing baby charged with murder


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

AMERICAN FORK — A 21-year-old father accused of shooting his 5-month-old son in the head with a rifle has been officially charged.

Joshua David Petersen was charged with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, in Provo's 4th District Court on Friday.

Prosecutors say Petersen had been planning to shoot his son, Ryker, for about a month, and went through with it April 5 when he placed the infant on a couch and shot him with a .22 caliber rifle.

Police believe Petersen was then about to shoot himself when a family member stopped him.

On April 8, a judge ordered Petersen held without bail at the Utah County Jail while charges were pending.

Petersen's next scheduled court hearing is Monday.

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Pat Reavy

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast