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Three people were shot - one fatally - in a South Salt Lake home invasion Sunday afternoon that has the usually peaceful neighborhood and police questioning what prompted the violence.

Investigators say neighbors reported gunfire coming from a home at 125 E. Sunset Ave. around 1 p.m., and witnesses saw two Latino men - one of whom was carrying a handgun - run from the home afterward.

A 50-year-old man was fatally wounded, while two women ages 42 and 39 were taken to University Hospital where they were in critical condition, according to South Salt Lake police Capt. Tracey Tingey. A pit bull also was shot and killed in the attack.

Names of the victims had not been released late Sunday.

Neighbor Troy Nibber heard at least six gunshots ring out, and was the first to discover the victims. Nibber lives in a mobile home that shares a fence with the backyard of the home where the shootings occurred.

He said he kicked over a portion of the fence and ran into the backyard, where he found two women shot several times in the torso - one of them near the back door of the home and another on the ground about 20 feet away.

At least one of the women appeared to have been shot from behind, Nibber said.

After checking on the women and propping one of them up, Nibber went inside the house to find a blanket. There he found the third victim, who was lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor. The man had been shot in the head, police said.

"His body was fighting to live but he was gone," Nibber said.

As he looked closer, Nibber said he realized the man on the floor was a friend.

He declined to identify his friend Sunday, but said the man had a wife, a family and a good job. Police said the victim did not live in the home, but in the area.

"He was the kind of man that would give you the shirt off his back," Nibber said. "He liked everybody and everybody liked him."

The man also was taken to University Hospital, but died a short time later, Tingey said.

Investigators are unsure of a motive for the shooting, or if there was any relationship between the victims and their attackers, Tingey said. It also was unclear if the women lived at the home, he said.

Neighbors said the home is a rental and occupants had lived there about a year. Sunday's shooting was a shock to residents.

"Honestly, I'm really surprised," said Janeen Goodwin, who lives two doors away from the home. "It sure doesn't make me want to sleep here tonight."

Goodwin said she has lived in the neighborhood for about two years, and thought the neighborhood was improving with new families moving in and some disruptive residents moving out.

"It's mind-blowing to say the least," she said.

Tingey agreed.

"It's not like it used to be," he said of the neighborhood. "When I started [as a police officer] here 20 years ago, we used to come to this street all the time."

The man's body, as well as that of the dog were taken to the Utah Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy, Tingey said.

The dog is being examined because its death is part of a homicide investigation, he said.

The suspects are described as Latino men, in their early to mid-20s. One of the men was wearing a white T-shirt, denim shorts and a knit cap; the other a red T-shirt, denim shorts and a also a knit cap, Tingey said.