Glendale area residents tired of violent crime

Sandra Yi and Tom Callan reporting A community grieving the murder of a popular store manager will come together to remember him. Walter "Wally" Knapton was shot and killed during a robbery at the Family Dollar store in Salt Lake's Glendale neighborhood Wednesday night.

Knapton's death marks the second fatal robbery in that neighborhood in the past six months. The suspects in both cases are still out there. For people in this community, that's a hard pill to swallow.

You can see how people felt about Wally Knapton. A memorial for him continues to grow outside the Family Dollar store, but no one has forgotten another victim who died not too long ago.

"He is the whole life of this store, he was. Everybody knew him," said Glendale resident Elena Clark.

That's how many people felt about Knapton. His murder outraged the community, which is still healing from a similar crime only a few blocks away.

Last summer, 24-year-old Faviola Hernandez was shot and killed by an armed robber in her salon on California Avenue. Her two young siblings were witnesses to the crime. "It looked like Ms. Hernandez was being cooperative, and he still killed her," said Jim Thompson, with the U.S. Marshals Service.

Six months later, the accused shooter, Miguel Mateos-Martinez, is still on the run. Today, the U.S. Marshals Service named him on their 15 Most Wanted List. "The type of violence he exhibited that day, we certainly want to take him off the street. We owe it to the family of the victim," Thompson said.

Mateos-Martinez was only 19 at the time of the crime and is a member of a violent street gang. Thompson says he was in the country illegally.

As one of the country's most wanted fugitives, there's more money offered for his capture, $25,000 to be exact, and more resources devoted to the investigation.

"So the advantage would be if we found out today that he was in Las Vegas, we could call our Las Vegas office and we could go check out the lead right away," Thompson explained.

Police are also still looking for Knapton's killers.

Meanwhile, people who live in the neighborhood want the violence to stop. They say it's what Knapton wanted, too. "He was always here to give to this community. We had a Santa Shack thing here. We had a Night Out Against Crime party in the parking lot. He never once turned us down," said Jay Ingleby, also a Glendale resident.

A memorial and candlelight vigil for Wally Knapton is set to begin in at 6 p.m., and Ingleby wants everyone to be there. "I want everybody in this Glendale Park community, and anybody else that knew this gentleman, to get out here tonight and show him the respect he is due," he said.

The suspects who killed Knapton were caught on surveillance video: one appears to be about 5 feet 5 inches tall, 170 pounds; the other appears to be 6 feet tall, weighing 200 pounds.

Police say the two suspects joined a third party in a gold, four-door sedan. Witnesses were able to get a partial license plate number on the vehicle: the first and second numbers are 2 and 9, and the last letters "TD."

If you have any information about the suspects involved in either murder, call Salt Lake City police at 799-INFO.

E-mail: syi@ksl.com
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com

Related topics