A Utah man with a history of violence toward his ex-wife is accused of shooting and injuring her and killing her boyfriend Friday morning. Shortly after, police say, he fatally shot himself.
Jeremy Reed Harris, 40, was found dead, an apparent suicide, in a stranger’s home in West Valley City — a roughly three-mile drive from where he allegedly attacked the two about an hour earlier.
The first shooting happened at a house near 3600 S. Deann Drive. Harris, 40, shot at his ex-wife and her boyfriend about 6:15 a.m., according to police
The woman was hit but is expected to survive. Her boyfriend, Nathan Edgar Brower, 40, died, West Valley City police wrote on social media.
The woman’s children were at the home at the time of the shooting, but they were not injured.
Then, at 7:30 a.m., a resident of a home near 3800 W. Hawkeye Circle discovered an armed man lying in his shower, police said. The resident left the home safely and alerted law enforcement; officers surrounded the residence and “used a robot, then gas to determine [the] suspect was not moving.”
When they entered the home, they found Harris dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His car was found outside, but police said there is “no known connection” between Harris and the residents of that home.
Harris has a lengthy criminal history — with the most recent charges involving domestic violence.
His ex-wife filed a protective order against him after he broke into her home last May. That was granted by a judge about four months ago while Harris was still on probation after pleading guilty to the trespassing. Records say he forced his way into the house, pushed Brower down and yelled at his ex-wife about why the boyfriend was there.
Harris was ordered to complete a relationship violence evaluation at the time. And a jail sentence was suspended and the three counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, as well as assault, were dropped.
Harris was also charged with reckless endangerment in July 2019 and pleaded guilty to that, as well, a misdemeanor count.
State documents show that he married in 2006 and divorced in 2011.
His prior court records span decades and the breadth of the state from Wendover to Moab, including guilty pleas for disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and interference with an arresting officer in 2011. Harris pleaded guilty to drinking alcohol in a vehicle in 2004 and separate counts of illegal possession or use of a controlled substance in 2003 and in 2001.
Editor’s note: Those who are experiencing intimate partner violence, or know someone who is, can call the Utah Domestic Violence Link Line, 1-800-897-LINK (5465), or the Utah Rape and Sexual Assault Crisis Line, 1-888-421-1100. In an emergency, call 911.
—Tribune reporters Erin Alberty and Scott D. Pierce contributed to this story.
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