November 10, 2024

USU Eastern students witness U of U shooting

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This archived article was written by: Daniel Pike

Two USU Eastern students witnessed a shooting near the University of Utah campus on Sept. 12 that involved a Salt Lake City local and two U of U football players.
According to the two students (who wish to remain anonymous), the shooting took place at a house party a few blocks away from the U of U campus on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley.
“We showed up around the same time the guy who had the gun tried to go inside the house. It seemed like a couple football players were telling him that he couldn’t go inside. We weren’t sure, but it could have been a gang member.”
The first student explained that neither they, nor the shooter, were actually allowed inside the house.
“Everything we saw happened outside. We saw one of the guys that got shot throw a bottle at the shooter because he was causing problems and the football guys didn’t like what he was saying.”
From there things escalated pretty quickly and shots were fired.“We heard three gunshots; it seemed like two people were hit, and one of the bullets didn’t hit anyone. It was probably those two football players from the U.”
One student said he hit the ground and the other dove into a bush.
It was determined that the two U of U football players that were shot were tight end, Lo Falemaka and running back, Marcel Brook-Brown. According to fox13now.com, Brook-Brown has since been released and it expected to return to the team soon. Falemaka is still hospitalized and expecting to be released this week, though his return to the team is unclear at this time.
The two USUE students came away shaken, but unharmed. “We left about 10 minutes after that. It was pretty scary, man. That was the first time I’ve ever heard gunshots like that, so my adrenaline was definitely pumping.”