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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man is facing aggravated assault charges after police say he pointed a rifle at his next-door neighbors and threatened to kill them.
Prosecutors filed charges against James Edgar Booth for two third-degree felony counts of aggravated assault in connection with an incident that occurred on the afternoon of Oct. 8 at his home near 800 South and 840 West in Salt Lake City.
According to the charging documents, video showed the 27-year-old, “exit his home holding a black rifle near his right side.”
It was awful. It was horrible. He came out with the rifle and he pointed it at my niece.
–Susan Naeata, SLC resident
The probable cause statement went on to say that Booth’s neighbors told investigators that he pointed the gun and said, “I’m going to shoot you all back to Mexico.”
“It was awful. It was horrible,” said Susan Naeata. “He came out with the rifle and he pointed it at my niece.”
Naeata said she, her elderly mother and niece witnessed what happened.
“He would just kept going off: ‘This is my town. This belongs to the white American people,’” Naeata said.
INTERVIEW: "This is our country, too" NEXT at 5pm on @KSL5TV hear from a woman who says her next-door neighbor threatened them with a rifle and used racial slurs. Charging documents state the suspect said, “I’m going to shoot you all back to Mexico” @KSL5TV@KSLcom@kslnewsradiopic.twitter.com/H8MdwI8KhD
— Ladd Egan (@laddegan) October 31, 2018
#tw_embed
Booth initially told police he was holding a black guitar stand, but officers with the Salt Lake City Police Department told prosecutors that after receiving a search warrant, they found four rifles and ammunition inside Booth’s home, and that “the rifles all looked the same or similar to the one Booth was seen holding in the video.”
Naeata said the derogatory racial terms left an impact on her family.
“It really hurts me inside,” she said. “There’s so many racial issues out there. You see, it’s always: ‘Go back to Mexico. You don’t belong here. This is our country.’ Guess what? It’s my country, too. I was born and raised here.”
