A single cigarette may have cost Jay Kelly Tincher his life early Thursday.
In a incident called "chilling" by police, the West Salt Lake man, 21, was reportedly shot to death by one of two people who had "asked for a smoke" moments earlier.Tincher and a female companion were waiting inside their Chevy Sprint for a crossing train near 800 W. South Temple shortly after midnight when a man on a red 10-speed bike and a pedestrian stopped by the passenger side where Tincher was sitting, according to Salt Lake police Lt. Steve Diamond.
"The bicyclist began a discussion with the victim and asked for a cigarette," said Diamond. "The victim answered, `You have to say please'; then (one of the two) said, `Can I please have a cigarette?' and shot him in the head."
Startled, the driver flipped a U-turn and sped about two blocks north to the 7-Eleven at 960 W. North Temple.
Mike Fowler, Kearns, was sitting in his car outside the neighboring McDonald's restaurant when the woman barged into the convenience store's parking lot.
"The driver pulled up and just started yelling, `Somebody call 911, call 911!' " recalled Fowler. "A guy in the parking lot kept trying to calm her down. I didn't even see the guy who'd been shot until the fire people showed up and pulled him from her car."
Rescue workers performed first-aid, but Tincher died moments later.
Meanwhile, the bicyclist was seen pedaling west on North Temple moments after the shooting, said Diamond. A neighborhood
watch volunteer spotted a man fitting the suspect's description ducking into an apartment complex near North Temple and Redwood Road.
Police were looking Thursday for a thin, dark-skinned man who is believed to live near the shooting scene. No arrests have been made.
"We believe the victim and the suspect did know one another," said Diamond.
Thursday's slaying marks the fourth homicide in the West Salt Lake area in nine days. On June 20, officers found the bullet-riddled bodies of three men inside an abandoned duplex at 242 W. North Temple.
Suspected drug dealers Efrin Iglesias Sebastion, 26, and Luis Miguel Cruz, 19, both Mexican nationals, were later arrested and charged with the murders of 22-year-old Roman N. Lojik, of Pleasant Grove, Jorge Cruz, 24, of Mexico, and Cesar David Rivera, 23, also of Mexico.
The killing is the city's 14th of the year. Unincorporated Salt Lake County, by comparison, has had only one murder so far this year.
By this time last year, 10 people had been murdered within the Salt Lake City limits.