As investigations continue, police do not believe the attack was random, but an attack on religion was also unlikely.
Published on January 8, 2026
Two people have been killed and several others injured in a shooting in the car park of a Mormon church in the Utah capital of Salt Lake City in the United States.
Police said the shooting happened Wednesday in the car park of the meetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where dozens of people were attending a funeral.
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Three of the six injured are in critical condition.
Police confirmed that no suspects were in custody and that a search had begun after the FBI offered to assist.
While police said they do not believe the shooting was random, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Reed told The Associated Press that it did not appear to be a targeted attack against religion.
Church spokesman Glenn Mills told reporters there were signs of a fight outside the church where the funeral was being held.
“In the parking lot, some kind of altercation (happened) and that’s when the shooting happened,” he said.
About 100 law enforcement vehicles were at the scene, with helicopters flying overhead.
“As soon as I arrived, I saw somebody on the ground… people attending to him and crying and arguing,” said Brennan McIntyre, a local man who spoke to the AP.
“This should never have happened outside of a place of worship. This should never have happened outside of a celebration of life,” said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
The church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is cooperating with law enforcement.
About half of Utah’s 3.5 million residents are members of the faith. Churches like the one where the shooting took place can be found in cities and towns across the state.
Faith has been on the rise since four people were killed when a former Marine opened fire at a Michigan church last month.
The FBI found that he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against the Church.
About 82 percent of mass murders in the US in 2025 involved a gun database Maintained by AP along with USA TODAY and Northeastern University.
Shots fired in Salt Lake City Growing unrest In the US, after a federal officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fatally shot a woman during ongoing protests against an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.