SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City police have arrested a man in connection with a fatal shooting on Aug. 12.
Siosiua Tonga Ositamani, 24, was booked Monday into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of murder.
“This is a homicide case where the victim was shot in the face in the middle of the day,” according to a police affidavit.
On Aug. 12, a man who would have turned 50 on Tuesday and who had a Pennsylvania ID card in his pocket, was shot and killed in the middle of the street near 50 E. Harrison Ave., the affidavit states.
“A witness leaving work in the area stated he observed three men, one with a bicycle, on Harrison Avenue, appearing to be in an argument. The witness stated that he saw the taller of the two suspects, hereafter referred as suspect No. 1, raise what appeared to be a handgun, pointed it at the victim’s head and fired,” according to the affidavit,
Detectives searching the area found surveillance video recorded at a nearby home that showed one of the suspects getting into a Mitsubishi Eclipse about a half-block away from the shooting, the affidavit states. Police found the driver of the vehicle who stated he gave the man a ride “because he didn’t want ‘those kind of people’ in the neighborhood,” the affidavit states.
The driver also picked up the second suspect and took them to a convenience store near 800 South and 900 West, according to the affidavit.
Another surveillance video showed one of the men bend down near the victim after he was shot and apparently take something from him, the affidavit states.
Investigators later received a tip that the alleged shooter was Ositamani. On Monday, he was spotted by officers and arrested. He told police that he and a friend got into an argument with the victim and shot the victim, according to the affidavit.
Information on the second suspect was not immediately available.