Neighbors have watched the unassuming white, clapboard house at 867 S. Roberta Street (240 East) for months, witnessing possible drug deals and other suspicious activity.
Now, a girl is dead and a man is in critical condition Tuesday following an apparent murder and attempted suicide at the Central City house.The shootings came two weeks before a neighborhood couple planned to buy the house to rid it of drug activity.
The girl, 17, was shot in the chin and cheek early Tuesday morning. The man, 31, was shot once in the head. He remained in critical condition at LDS Hospital. Police were called to the house at 6:30 a.m.
"I knew it was going to happen sooner or later," said a man who lives two houses away. Other neighbors shared his sentiment.
For more than a year, neighbors have worried about suspicious activity at the house. Gunshots are common, they say. Cars line the driveway at all hours. One man even reported seeing people carrying large-caliber weapons from the home at night.
"We have had reports of possible drug activity at this home," Salt Lake police Lt. Dennis Tueller confirmed. Police have responded to the house eight times this year and 15 times since 1986.
"It's an (address) we're very familiar with," Salt Lake police Lt. Marty Vuyk said.
Although neighbors didn't hear the gunshots Tuesday, news of the woman's death was no surprise.
Rick Cordova, who lives next door, works as a bouncer at the Red Belle saloon and has returned home several nights to find loud parties at the neighboring house and people offering to sell drugs, he said. The activity finally became too much for many Roberta Street residents, including Keri and Bret Huish.
"The whole neighborhood knows how we're buying this house to get the drug people out," Keri Huish said. She and her husband, a former Salt Lake police officer, will close their deal April 18.
"If we hadn't done it, somebody else in the neighborhood would, it's such a problem," Bret Huish said. "It looks like we were about two weeks too late to prevent someone being shot."
There were several people on the premises at the time of the shooting, Tueller said. Initially, those inside the house said they heard shots. As homicide detectives searched the house, a young man drove up and admitted he'd witnessed the shooting and had left the scene.
Police recovered a 9mm semi-automatic handgun from inside the house, described by Tueller as being dirty and unkempt.