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SALT LAKE CITY — Criminal charges were filed Friday against a Magna man accused of bringing a gun to a fistfight in a Salt Lake parking lot.
Michael Tifi Trevino, 23, is charged in 3rd District Court with murder, a first-degree felony, and obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
About 4 a.m. on Sept. 3, two men got into a fight in a parking lot at 128 W. 300 South.
Anetone Simanu, 35, threw Trevino to the ground and placed him in a headlock as Trevino attempted to punch him, according to charging documents. The fight was broken up, and both men went back to their groups.
Simanu was still upset, however, and continued to yell at Trevino to fight him, the charges state.
"Hey, come on. Let's go. Let's go," Simanu allegedly yelled.
Despite efforts by his friends to get Simanu to leave, he continued to call on Trevino to fight. That's when Trevino pulled out a gun and shot Simanu in the chest, according to the charges.
"In this case, the victim and the defendant did not know each other. They just happened to be hanging out in the same parking lot. A fight broke out between the victim and the defendant, which was broken up. However, the victim was upset and kept calling the defendant out to fight. The defendant then escalated things by producing and using a firearm in what was to be a fistfight," investigators wrote in the charging documents.
Trevino was arrested a few days later by members of the Salt Lake City Police Department's Violent Criminal Apprehension Team and SWAT at an apartment complex near 500 S. Redwood Road.
