This is a developing story
Police in Tooele County have arrested a boy suspected of killing four members of a family in their Grantsvillle home Friday.
But the Grantsville police have not formally established a connection between the suspect, whose age has not been released, and the family because the victims have not been identified yet.
A fifth family member was injured during the shooting, which occurred around 7 p.m. Friday. That person is now in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
Grantsville, which has a population of more than 11,000 people, is located northwest of Tooele at the southern tip of the Great Salt Lake. In 2019, a local man was charged with child abuse homicide for the 2018 death of a 2-year-old. Otherwise, homicides are rare there, state crime records show. The last homicide in Grantsville was in 2001, according to Utah Department of Public Safety records.
Grantsville police Cpl. Rhonda Fields said that shootings like the one Friday evening are uncommon for the quiet, close knit community.
“We don't have a great deal of aggravated circumstances in the crimes that do occur here,” Fields said. “Certainly not a single homicide, and definitely not multiple inside the same residence at the same time.”
Police don’t yet know how the suspect obtained the handgun used in the killings, Fields said.
Sonja Hutson covers politics and government for KUER. Follow her on Twitter @SonjaHutson
