Police: Victims Follow Suspects After Paintball Shooting, Suspects Fire Back With Real Gun

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah – Police took one man into custody and were looking for another after a wild chain of events that involved a paintball gun, a real gun and a crash.

Officer Taylor Blauer with the Murray Police Department said it all began around noon Tuesday near 100 West Fireclay Avenue when a worker reported he’d drawn fire from a paintball gun.

Two suspects, according to police, left in a silver BMW, only to open fire with the paintball gun again about a block away near Main Street and Gilbride Avenue.

Blauer said two people who had been fired at got into the same pickup truck and followed the BMW.

The pursuit continued roughly northeast, and Blauer said at one point someone inside the BMW opened fire at the truck with a real gun.

According to investigators, bullet casings were recovered from a location near 3100 South.

The cars eventually found themselves on 2700 South near 300 East when the vehicles crashed, Blauer said.

Resident Lori Michoff said she heard the crash and looked outside in time to see the two suspects exit the BMW.

“They wanted to get out of here,” Michoff reflected. “They started acting really weird and then they took off going that way.”

Blauer said officers took one man into custody and were still looking for the other suspect.

The ordeal placed Granite Park Junior High into shelter-in-place protocols for about 45 minutes, according to Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley.

“Luckily at this point, as far as we’re aware, nobody was injured, but we couldn’t say it wouldn’t have gone another way,” Blauer said.

Blauer said police strongly discourage people from following fleeing suspects and instead encourage them to call dispatch to let officers handle the situation.

Anybody with information in the case was being asked to call Murray Police Department at 801-840-4000.