SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 News) – UPDATE 08/14/20: Police identified the victim in the homicide as 49-year-old Luis Melendez.
Salt Lake City police are investigating a homicide involving a deceased middle-aged man Wednesday evening, and say they believe there is no danger to the public.
Police said they received a report around 5:30 p.m. of a man that was down — in the street — on Harrison Avenue from a possible gunshot wound.
When officers and medical personnel arrived, they declared the man dead on-scene and police are looking at the incident as a homicide investigation, said Detective Greg Wilking, a SLCPD public information officer.
As police try to understand what led up to the incident, Wilking said it’s unclear if the victim is homeless, or a local resident, and who the suspect(s) is/are.
“[We’re] not really consider[ing] this a drive-by shooting,” Wilking said. “I don’t know how the suspect left the area. I don’t know if there were cars involved, but we are working on that suspect description right now.”
Wilking said police are taking witness statements and combing through any surveillance camera footage.
SLCPD closed the street for a few hours Wednesday evening as investigators collected information. The street is now open.
Wilking notes that an unsolved homicide, involving a woman, happened in the area close to this incident in recent years.
“That white home over there,” Wilking said. “It is actually a home and an apartment there and the apartment is where the unsolved homicide took place.”
Police ask for anyone who saw anything or has information about the incident to call Salt Lake City Police at 801-799-3000.
