Members of a Salt Lake gang were vowing revenge Thursday morning after an early-morning fight left one man dead.
A youth, who identified himself as Shadow, said his cousin, Raul Gonzales, 19, returned home early Thursday morning to find people having a party inside his house, at 1592 S. Major St.Shadow was at the house and said a fight broke out and spilled into the back yard, where Gonzales was shot in the back of the head. Police were summoned at 4:48 a.m., and Gonzales was taken by ambulance to LDS Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, said Salt Lake Police Lt. Roger Winkler.
Shadow, covered with scratches and with blood on his shirt, told police that fighting was still going on when he knelt down and saw that his cousin had been shot.
Police had not ruled out the possibility the gunshot wound was self-inflicted. "Everything is 50-50 from the people we've interviewed," said Lt. Jim Bell. "Some say it was suicide. Some say it wasn't."
At some point, a fight broke out between two women, one of whom was later hospitalized. Shots were also fired inside the house before the fight moved outside.
Gonzales and another man were among those fighting in the back yard. The other man fled the scene following the shooting, but detectives later located him and continued to question him late Thursday morning.
Shadow - standing with a group of teens outside the crime scene after being questioned by police - says he knows another "cousin" is the killer.
Several in the group, standing by a police officer who was guarding the crime scene, vowed revenge against the cousin.
"It's a family matter now," one member of the group said. Several of the youths said they did not think police would do anything about the shooting and vowed to take care of the suspect themselves. "He's 20, and that's how old he will be when he dies," one said.