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Eighteen-year-old Cesar Ramirez died this morning at Intermountain Medical Center. He'd been in critical condition since he was shot while driving on Interstate 15 last Friday.
Ramirez was shot in his left underarm Friday rush-hour traffic near 2100 South on an I-15 collector. He was able to pull to the shoulder, despite being critically injured, and was rushed to the hospital.
The Utah Highway Patrol is working alongside the State Bureau of Investigation and the Metro Gang Unit. Investigators are hoping Ramirez's passing will urge people to come forward with more information.
"Obviously, along with the passing of the victim does bump up the charge to some homicide issues there, as you can imagine. But once again, we're going full bore with this," said UHP spokesman Sgt. Jeff Nigbur.
Yesterday we told you that UHP investigators suspected the shooting was gang related. Security camera photos have given investigators some clues, namely exchanges between a black car and the jeep the victim was in. They say a bottle was thrown and gang signs were flashed.
Investigators are looking at evidence from the scene, including ballistics tests from the bullet that hit Ramirez. "The question comes in: Do we find the gun? Has the gun been thrown in a lake? Has it been thrown over the side of something? And will we ever find that gun?" Nigbur said.
Although Nigbur says UHP doesn't have any suspects, we did learn through another investigator that they're looking at several persons of interest.
We also just learned that the Metro Gang Unit arrested two people this morning who were thought to be connected to the case but, after questioning, they were cleared in this case but taken to jail on unrelated charges.
E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
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