A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On Feb. 12, 2007, a man with a shotgun ran into Salt Lake City’s Trolley Square and fired multiple shots, killing five people and hitting multiple other victims before he was killed, according to Deseret News coverage of the event, using police reports and eyewitness accounts.
As the story unfolded, “Salt Lake City Police Detective Robin Snyder confirmed the shooter was dead and that several people were in critical condition at area hospitals,” according to the coverage, written by a team of reporters on the scene and in the newsroom.
Print, radio and television coverage of the mass shooting shook Salt Lake City. Trolley Square is a well-known landmark, and most Utahns could envision how the incident unfolded based on news descriptions. Where it happened. How people must have felt.
The shooting occurred two months before the Virginia Tech shootings. Five years before Aurora, Colorado, and Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. It had been eight years almost to the day since the shooting in Columbine High School in Colorado.
As the days and weeks followed, the Deseret News coverage transitioned from recapping the incident and tallying the damage, to covering the funerals of those were killed and attempting to put the incident in perspective. Some of the best articles have been told through the eyes of those who experienced it:
“Police release Trolley Square final report”
“Trolley Square reopens with care”
“Trolley Square shooting victims striving to help others”
“For 1st time, Trolley Square shooting victim moves past ‘survivor mode’”
“More details emerging on Trolley Square gunman and victims”
“Opinion: Trolley Square victim’s sister speaks out on gun legislation”
“A night of terror heard on tape”
