Despite being ordered by the courts to undergo a mental health evaluation, despite being charged with stalking a radio disc jockey and carrying a concealed weapon, De-Kieo Duy was able to walk into a Taylorsville gun shop Wednesday and buy a gun, legally.
In Utah, there are a few restrictions that will keep a person from buying a gun, but routine misdemeanor charges don't.Police believe Duy got the gun used in Thursday's attack on the KSL television studios at Doug's Shoot'N Sports, 4926 S. Redwood Road. She paid for it on Wednesday and returned to the store Thursday about 1 p.m. to pick it up, Salt Lake Police Sgt. Jerry Mendez said.
Two hours later, Duy used the weapon to shoot two people in a frenzied storming of the Salt Lake Triad Center complex Thursday afternoon, police believe. The shooting spree left one woman critically injured with a gunshot wound to the head. The KSL building manager suffered grazing bullet wounds.
AT&T employee Anne Sleater, 30, was upgraded from extremely critical to critical and stable condition Friday night at LDS Hospital, while Brent Wightman was treated at an area hospital and released.
Duy was arrested after being tackled by an AT&T employee. She was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on two counts of attempted criminal homicide, second-degree felonies.
The Thursday shooting that was targeting a KSL news reporter was eerily reminiscent of a 1996 episode in West Valley City involving Duy.
In that incident, Duy burst into Q-99 radio station and demanded to see a disc jockey with a radio moniker of "Stevie Wonder."
Assistant West Valley Police Chief Craig Gibson said she accused the DJ of harassing her here and in California and demanded to see him, even though he was in the room and near her.
"She obviously didn't know him, but she was alleging all this interaction."
Police were called, and she was escorted from the station with a warning not to return.
She didn't re-enter the station but stood outside the building, growing increasingly agitated, Gibson said.
Officers returned again, and when they attempted to arrest her for disorderly conduct, she began to fight by kicking and hitting. Gibson said officers also found a steak knife in her back pocket.
The Oct. 7, 1996, confrontation led to five misdemeanor charges being filed against Duy in West Valley's 3rd District Court. She pleaded not guilty to charges of stalking, disorderly conduct, assault on a police officer, interfering with an arrest and carrying a concealed weapon. The weapon charge was the most serious -- a class A misdemeanor.
After a court-ordered mental health evaluation, Duy was allowed to enter a two-year diversion program. The terms of the agreement meant Duy had to comply with all the court-imposed requirements, including no additional criminal violations.
Records indicate she successfully completed the diversion program last October, and as a result, the charges were dismissed.
Duy, from all appearances, had a crime-free past in Utah that wouldn't interfere with her ability to purchase a handgun.
Utah follows the 1994 federal requirements imposed by the Brady Bill, which mandates a records check for handgun purchases and makes it illegal for some people to own a gun. By Dec. 1 of last year, all firearms, including rifles and shotguns, required background checks.
The prohibitions are pretty standard: People with felony convictions, warrants, domestic violence convictions and protective orders issued against them are denied the right to purchase a firearm.
With Duy's history of mental problems, the natural question is, why was she allowed to purchase a gun, even absent any criminal convictions?
Bruce Brown, manager of the firearms section of the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification, said the federal prohibition on firearms purchases due to mental illness is extremely limited.
"It's very narrow," Brown said. "They have to be court-adjudicated mentally incompetent or incapable."
Brown said it's a gray area as to what determines a person's incompetence.
Simply obtaining mental health counseling isn't going to affect someone's ability to buy a gun, he said.
Many people, too, are under the impression there is some "waiting period" in Utah to buy firearms.
The only waiting that occurs begins when the person enters a gun shop, fills out the proper forms to make the purchase and the salesman calls the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Brown said the bureau checks the person's background through its own records, looks for national and statewide warrants plus the existence of any protective orders and also taps into a national computerized system for similar information.
If the record comes back clean without any questions, Brown said the background check is completed and the gun can be purchased.
If there are any doubts, the state can research the matter and is supposed to either deny or approve the purchase.
Gun owners who put their weapons in hock at Utah pawn shops are subject to the same restrictions as someone trying to purchase a gun.
Of course, private sales of guns aren't regulated at all, with anyone being free to take out an advertisement and sell his or her gun to anyone who has the money.
The Thursday shooting prompted gun control advocate Sarah Brady to issue a statement from Washington calling for stricter laws in Utah.
"This is another demonstration of the need for a waiting period on handgun purchases as mandated by the original Brady Bill," the statement read. "The shooter in this incident was apparently able to acquire a gun in a very short time despite her suspicious behavior and history of mental instability, because her name came up clean on the computerized Instant-Check system. The reported ease with which this disturbed woman acquired a firearm should disturb and warn us all."
The irony of Utah's restrictions is that a misdemeanor conviction of assaulting a police officer, terroristic threats or stalking isn't going to prevent anyone from buying a handgun.
In contrast, anyone can allege domestic violence or fear of harm in a court-issued protect order, have it signed off by a domestic relations commissioner and the subject of the complaint is barred from buying a handgun. The restriction comes absent of any criminal conviction, without proving conduct.
Despite the quirks in Utah's laws on gun ownership, area police say they don't think more laws would do much good in preventing gun violence.
"I think the No. 1 thing is if someone wants to get a gun, they can get a gun. We can make all the laws and restrictions we possibly can, but it is not a cure-all. Most of the guns we deal with are guns that have been found, guns that have been stolen in burglary, guns that have serial numbers scratched off," said South Salt Lake Police Capt. Beau Babka.
Babka is joined by other police officers from jurisdictions throughout the Salt Lake Valley who say gun shops and pawn shops do a pretty good job of adhering to the laws regulating gun purchases.
"They are in business like any other business, and they cannot risk the liability," Gibson said.
"That business runs a substantial risk for any gun that is sold improperly. I think with guns they are pretty cautious. It is in their best interest."
Sandy police detective Mike Fahey's duties include the pawn detail.
The one pawn shop in town has never had a problem with its gun sales, he said.
"When I go in there, I will check, first off, the serial numbers on the guns to make sure the number matches the one taken down on the pawn card."
He said gun dealers are required to fill out a federal firearms transaction card. The seller is required to ask for picture identification, some other identification that bears the same address and then run the check through the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
"In Sandy, they are really careful. If they think something is funny, they won't sell."
Nothing in the law, however, requires gun dealers to act on suspicions and withhold a sale if they think someone's intentions might be dangerous.
"I don't know what else you can do," Fahey said, "than what is already being done. You can get a gun anywhere you want on the street. But I think for the most part, people going into sport shops to buy guns for hunting or protection are doing it the proper way."