A shooting in a Mormon church parking lot in Salt Lake City, Utah, has killed two individuals and injured several more.
Police said the shooting took place on Wednesday in the parking lot of a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where dozens of people were attending a funeral.
Three of the six injured individuals are in critical condition.
Police verified that no suspects were in custody and began a manhunt, with the FBI apparently providing aid.
While police said they didn’t believe the shooting was random, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd told The Associated Press that it did not appear to be a religiously motivated attack.
Glen Mills, a church spokesman, informed reporters that there was evidence of a scuffle outside the church where the funeral was held.
“Out in the parking lot, there was some sort of altercation that took place, and that’s when shots were fired,” he said.
No fewer than 100 law enforcement vehicles were at the scene in the aftermath, with helicopters flying overhead.
“As soon as I came over, I saw someone on the ground… People are attending to him and crying and arguing,” said Brennan McIntire, a local man who spoke to AP.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said, “This should never have happened outside a place of worship. This should never have happened outside a celebration of life.”
The church, which has headquarters in Salt Lake City, is cooperating with law enforcement.
The faith has been on heightened alert since four people were killed when a former Marine opened fire in a Michigan church last month and set it ablaze.
The FBI found that he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against the church.
About 82 percent of mass killings in the US in 2025 involved a firearm, according to a database maintained by AP alongside USA Today and Northeastern University.
The killing in Salt Lake City came amid rising turmoil in the United States, after a federal officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis during continuous protests against an immigration crackdown.
