'Stunned': Utah's Tongan community looks to move forward after funeral shooting

KEARNS — As a Tongan, Kulaea Taulanga said she was raised to be close to her family and neighbors, and to respect houses of worship.

That makes what happened Monday in Kearns so difficult. Unified police responded to a shooting outside a funeral at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse, near 5015 S. 4620 West. Three people were shot, one of them fatally.

That funeral, according to sources, was being held for a man who was shot and killed Aug. 7 after bringing a shotgun inside a gas station in Riverton.

"Everybody is stunned," said Taulanga, interfaith chair at the National Tongan American Society, about Monday's shooting.

Taulanga said she and other leaders at the Murray-based organization are considering holding a town hall meeting in the wake of the tragedy.

"We need to get together and see what else we can do to make it better because this is not us," she said. "It's not our culture. It's not the way we were brought up."

Unified Police Asst. Chief Justin Hoyal said the shooting on Monday morning stemmed from a "dispute between two families." He said a 17-year-old was fighting with two 18-year-olds when his father gave him a gun. According to Hoyal, the 17-year-old shot those he was fighting with before losing the gun and getting shot himself.

One of the 18-year-olds, Vilisoni Angilau, was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after the shooting. The other is in critical condition, police said, as is the 17-year-old suspect. Prosecutors will screen charges against him later.

The father of the teen suspect, Afuhia Manatau, 45, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

"He gave that suspect the gun and ultimately led to the murder of an 18-year-old," Hoyal said.

Hoyal added that investigators are looking into possible gang involvement but don't have any answers about that yet.

Meanwhile, Ivoni Nash, president of the National Tongan American Society, grieves what happened at the funeral. But she said the organization wants to "look forward" and work on helping the younger generation learn how to settle their problems.

"It is really, really sad that it happened that way, which to us, the older generation, it shocked us because we don't believe in settling (things) like that," Nash said.

Nash said she and other leaders are "brainstorming" the best way to respond. But in the meantime, she shared a message for the Tongan community in Utah.

"Let's get together and work together" to teach the younger generation to forgive each other, she said. "Love and (being) together and (helping) each other is the most important thing in our culture."

The National Tongan American Society put out a statement following the Kearns shooting urging love and respect for those who are hurting.

"This is a difficult moment for our Tongan community in Utah, but it should not be a moment that pulls us further apart," the statement said. "We need one another. We need to find better ways to work through conflict, to listen to one another, and to look out for the well-being of our families and our young people."

Monday's shooting followed another incident in Salt Lake City in January in which multiple people were shot, also outside a funeral. That shooting on Jan. 7 left two people dead and several others injured.

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