Sandy, Utah shooting victims include kindergartner, 2 adults
SANDY, Utah -- Utah school officials say a boy killed in a Tuesday afternoon shooting that also left two adults dead was a kindergartner at an elementary school located blocks from where the violence unfolded.
Police say the three died in an apparent domestic dispute after a woman and two children were picked up by second woman who also had a child in her car.
Police say a man rammed the car, then started shooting. He was found dead along with the woman and boy.
Police have not released names or ages of those involved, but Jeff Haney of the Canyons School District confirmed to CBS affiliate KUTV Wednesday morning that the child who died was enrolled in kindergarten classes at nearby Brookwood Elementary in Sandy, Utah.
Haney said the gunman also shot that student's brother, a fifth grader, who was taken into surgery Tuesday night. He had reconstructive surgery on his jaw, according to Haney, and will have to have at least one more surgery.
The fifth-grader is in critical but stable condition. Haney said the boy was scheduled to participate in a fifth grade graduation ceremony Wednesday.
Another young girl was shot, Haney said, and is in stable condition. She is not related to the woman, kindergartner or fifth-grader.
Haney said Wednesday is Brookwood's last day of school before summer.
Tracy Finau, who witnessed the shooting, told KUTV the shooter blocked the woman's car before shooting.
"He walked out of his car, went to his passenger side, pulled out a handgun and walked toward the [woman's] car and shot the window out," Finau said.
Finau said the shooter then walked around the vehicle and shot into the back windows.
Ridge Workman, a 14-year-old boy who lives several hundred yards away from the shooting, said he heard seven to eight gunshots but mistook them for fireworks. Workman said he saw a car in the street riddled with bullet holes. Its windows were smashed in and there was a lot of blood nearby, according to Workman.
Resident Colby Corbett was in his backyard waiting for his 8-year-old son to walk home from school when he heard 20 to 30 gunshots within a few seconds.
"I was panicking bad," Corbett said. "I thought it was like a gun battle."
Corbett said he was relieved when his son arrived soon after, coming from the school and in the opposite direction of the gunfire. His son, Anthony, said he wasn't worried because he thought the gunshots were fireworks.
The shooting occurred in the quiet neighborhood with winding roads, nestled against mountains about 20 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
It's about half a mile from an elementary school, but it was unclear if any children still at the school witnessed the shooting or heard gunshots, Canyons School District spokesman Jeff Haney said.
School had let out for the afternoon but some students were still on the playground or talking outside with teachers when school officials were notified that the shooting had happened and the students and staff were hustled inside for a lockdown, Haney said.
He said some parents arriving to pick up children realized what was happening and scooped up kids into their cars or ushered them into nearby homes.
Parents and kids were being reunited Tuesday evening at the school, where the lockdown was lifted after about an hour.
Teacher Janae Hunt said only a handful of kids were in the school when the lockdown was imposed and she didn't hear or see anything.
