Draper police have made an arrest in the Aug. 11 killing of a man outside an apartment complex. A 21-year-old suspect has been booked into the Salt Lake County jail, where he is being held without bail.
The shooting unfolded outside the Heritage at Draper apartment complex at 11715 S. State Street at about 1 a.m. Police responded after a report of shots fired in the area.
Arriving officers found the body of a man who had been shot. Police later identified the man as Salt Lake City resident Remey Rowland, 33, noting that he did not live in the apartment complex near the shooting scene.
According to a probable cause statement, Rowland’s body was found on the west side of the complex parking lot, and a car with its passenger side door open was found on the east side. The inside of the car was “covered in blood,” and police found drugs, fake currency, a bullet and spent casings “indicative of a possible drug deal.”
Detectives believe that Rowland was in the driver’s seat when he was shot, and that he ran from the car before collapsing and dying from “multiple gunshot wounds.”
After obtaining a warrant for Rowland’s cellphone, they identified the suspect from texts between the two about “meeting to exchange drugs and money.” According police, they also obtained surveillance video of the suspect getting into the victim’s car shortly before he was killed.
The suspect told police he shot Rowland in self-defense, according to the probable cause statement. He was was “nervous because he had heard the victim had killed someone,” and that he fired his gun at Rowland because he feared the victim was “grabbing a gun” when he reached down by the driver’s side door.
The suspect has been booked into jail for investigation of murder. The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name suspects unless they have been charged with a crime.
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