According to police, a Kearns man was shot dead by his girlfriend
The suspect is in custody.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Unitary Police are investigating the death of a 21-year-old man who was reportedly shot by his girlfriend.
A 21-year-old Kearns man has died and his girlfriend is in custody following a shooting early Friday.
According to the Unified Police Agency, Dominic Vigil and the 21-year-old suspect had an argument around 1am at a home near 5300 South and 4200 West that they shared with the man’s mother. The girlfriend shot Vigil several times before leaving the house, police said. Vigil died at the scene of the crime.
A few hours later, the woman was arrested without incident in West Valley City. She was sent to the Salt Lake County Jail.
Vigil’s mother told police she was woken up by the couple’s argument and soon saw the friend hitting her son, according to a statement on the likely cause.
When she tried to intervene, the woman started hitting her too. The couple eventually went back to their room and closed the door, the mother told police. Then she heard three shots.
The mother then saw her son collapse and saw the friend point the gun at her and pull the trigger, she told police. The gun apparently did not fire at that moment.
After the suspect was taken into custody, the woman told police that she and Vigil “argued, and at times the fights became physical.” She said she suspected Vigil was being unfaithful, that they had an argument and that she took Vigil’s phone and threw it on the ground, causing it to shatter.
After that, Vigil started hitting her, she said, adding that Vigil’s mother also started hitting her and that she “defended herself.” According to the probable cause statement, the woman said she believes Vigil “went on the weapon he had threatened her with in the past.”
They both reached for the gun, but she reached it first, she told investigators, adding that she “must have already had her finger on the trigger and when she turned around … it went off … three times,” the statement on probable cause said.
The woman admitted pointing the gun at Vigil’s mother, but said she “thought she was going to get in there with her own gun.”
The suspect is being held without bail. The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name defendants unless they have been charged with a crime.
Editor’s Note • Those who experience intimate partner violence or know someone who has been affected are urged to call the Utah Domestic Violence Link Line at 1-800-897-LINK (5465).
