Update: Multiple people injured in fight outside Salt Lake funeral home
Mar 19, 2024, 2:02 PM | Updated: 11:11 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Multiple people are hospitalized following what police described as a chaotic scene spanning several blocks, after a stabbing near 400 East 100 South in Salt Lake City.
A Salt Lake City Police Department spokesman said a fight that erupted outside a funeral ended with six injured.
Police initially told media it was a stabbing and a shooting.
Multiple people were injured and at least one is in custody following a stabbing and shooting near 400 East 100 South in Salt Lake City. (Salt Lake City Police Department)
Officers dropped everything from around the city to respond to at least three different scenes around town related to the stabbing at about 1:30 pm.
The first location at Neil O’Donnell Funeral Home is where Salt Lake City Police Communications Director Brent Weisberg explained they responded to the fight and paramedics took four people to the hospital with injuries.
Witnesses at the other scenes heard and saw the situation unfold.
Dirk Johnson, who lives on 300 East near 200 South, said he heard sirens and turned on his scanner. He could hear police calling out multiple locations, including right in front of his apartment more than a block away from the funeral home.
He said he looked out and saw an ambulance, fire truck, and several police cars rush up to an apartment across from his.
“Apparently one of the stabbing victims had gone in this building, and was holed up there, and they were able to get him and bring him out,” he said.
A business next door told KSL TV they watched paramedics load an injured man into the ambulance and take him away.
Weisberg said witnesses reported a car leaving the funeral home quickly, and officers tracked down that car at 49 W. Broadway and stopped it. That was the last scene police responded to.
“Inside that car, there were a total of three people. Of the three people, two people have minor injuries and they have been taken to area hospitals,” Weisburg said. “The third person from that car has been detained for questioning by our detectives.”
Salt Lake police later said those two people were released from the hospital and their injuries were not stab wounds. The four others remain hospitalized.
Initially, police said one person may have suffered a gunshot wound.
“However, doctors are now reporting they are unable to confirm the cause of injury to the person who was thought to have been shot,” a tweet from police said.
Weisberg said the people hospitalized are being treated as patients right now and will be questioned as police try to unravel what happened.
Multiple people were stabbed and one was shot outside of a Salt Lake City funeral home on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (Carter Williams, KSL)
Police said the relationships between the injured are not yet clear, and they are not sure what started the fight.
Detectives from the gang unit, violent crime and robbery squad are assisting. Police are asking neighbors or witnesses who know more about Tuesday’s events to contact SLCPD. There are no outstanding suspects and no danger to the community, according to police.
After seeing all the commotion, Johnson talked about how it really struck him to learn it all came from a funeral.
“Here are these people coming to see a family member or a loved one, and then have this violence break out?” he said, “Is pretty tragic.”
