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SALT LAKE CITY — Police say they are searching for at least one person involved in a shooting that left a man dead outside of a late-night business in downtown Salt Lake City early Sunday morning.
Salt Lake City police responded to multiple calls of a shooting in a parking lot outside of the New Yorker Social Club, 60 W. Market Street, shortly after 4 a.m., according to Salt Lake City police spokesman Brent Weisberg. He said officers were in the downtown area at the time and arrived about a minute after the first call came in to find a man who had been shot.
"(It) was a very chaotic scene," he said. Our officers found multiple community members down on the ground providing life-saving efforts to this individual who had been shot."
Officers took over those efforts, but he was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting. The man's name and age have not yet been released.
Police said they do not have any information about any suspect or suspects that they can release. They are asking anyone who has cellphone videos or pictures, or descriptions of anyone involved to call police at 801-799-3000.
Weisberg said that it appears that a fight had broken out in the parking lot just before the shooting, though it wasn't clear what the fight was about. He added that there is no evidence to suggest the shooting had any connection to the Utah Pride Festival events happening in the city this weekend.
Meanwhile, police arrested two people who remained at the scene, one for interfering with a crime scene and another for assault after a fight broke out as detectives arrived. Weisberg said many of the people who remained at the scene were friends and family of the victim and it was a "very tragic, very emotional situation." Police eventually set up an area for family and friends to grieve about a block from the investigation.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown issued a statement Sunday, acknowledging the "very emotionally charged situation."
"Our officers face significant dangers and challenges when they deal with a crowd that becomes upset. They are trained to safely manage tense situations and restore order in the most challenging of circumstances and that's what happened this morning and I would like to thank our officers for their professionalism and compassion," his statement continued.
Police also investigated a shooting near the club shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, though nobody was injured. The bullets reportedly ended up "going over the heads of several officers," with one bullet striking a sign above the officers who were in the area, according to Salt Lake City police. Some damage was also done to the nearby Orrin G. Hatch U.S. Courthouse.
The suspected shooter, in that case, was apprehended shortly after the incident.
Sunday's shooting marked the city's 10th homicide this year. Weisberg said police had already started conducting enhanced patrols in the city's entertainment district and plan to continue to do that in the future.
"We want people coming into downtown Salt Lake City to feel safe, to feel welcome," he said. "We want them to know that Salt Lake City is an open and welcoming environment for them, so that's why we're going to continue to have those enhanced patrols."
Contributing: Shelby Lofton
