Utah men arrested in shooting death of teen thought girls were ‘stalking’ them
Utah men arrested in shooting death of teen thought girls were ‘stalking’ them
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Four men were arrested in connection to the shooting death of a 17-year-old driver. Two men who were arrested following the fatal shooting of a teenage girl in Utah said they followed her and shot at the red truck she was driving because they believed she and her passenger were “stalking” them, officials revealed.
![[Two men who were arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of a teenage girl in Utah said they followed her and shot at the red truck because they thought she was stalking them]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/21/Iron.jpg)
Michael Edward Hess-Witacki and Ethan Andrew Galloway, both 23, admitted to investigators that they were involved in the shooting, according to the Iron County Sheriff’s Office. The two men, along with Aldric Felipe, 21, and Matthew D. Sorber-Petrie, 22, who were also arrested, were in a black truck that allegedly pursued the 17-year-old driver and her passenger along a stretch of road northwest of Cedar City Friday night.
![[The men shot at the truck which caused the driver to crash through a fence]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/23/Iron-2.jpg)
Iron County Sheriff Ken Carpenter said the black truck pulled up alongside the teens around 10:42 p.m. and began firing, which caused the driver to crash through a fence. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died from her injuries. The four suspects attempted to flee, but were quickly detained.
Hess-Witucki was identified as the registered owner of the truck, and told investigators that he drove the truck that chased the teens, while Galloway said he sat in the front passenger seat and shot at the vehicle, according to law enforcement authorities.
They said they went after the girls because they had seen the red truck in the neighborhood and thought they were stalking them, according to the arrest affidavit. “Both suspects admitted that their actions had resulted in serious bodily injury and death of the victim,” the affidavit states. “Their justification for chasing the victim’s vehicle was they believed they had previously observed the victim’s vehicle in their neighborhood and presumed the occupants of the victim’s vehicle were (stalking) them.”.
