Prosecutors filed charges Thursday against four men in connection with a deadly shooting outside of a funeral in Kearns last week.
Unified Police officers responded after gunshots rang out at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse on 4066 W. 5015 South in Kearns around 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 17. Vilisoni Angilau, 18, was killed. Two others were critically injured.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office has charged Afuhia Masiu Manatau, 45, and his son, Tautusi Kai Manatau, 17, with murder, two counts of felony discharge of a firearm and one count of felony obstruction of justice. The father also faces six additional charges, including one count of prohibited dangerous weapon conduct, four counts of felony aggravated assault and one count of failing to stop at the command of police.
Two other men, 19-year-olds Haneli Grall and Tevita Siope Tonga Kofe, have been charged with one count each of obstruction of justice.
How the shooting unfolded
An 18-year-old man who was injured in the shooting told investigators he was attending a funeral for a family friend when he and 17-year-old Tautusi Kai Manatau got into a fight outside. The 18-year-old told police the fight began because Manatau had allegedly “jumped his cousin” in February.
Another man told investigators that at one point during the fight, the 17-year-old’s father, Afuhia Masiu Manatau, began fighting him and other onlookers. When others broke up the fight, the father took out a handgun and “pointed it at everyone,” he told police.
A woman had stood between the men to try and prevent the shooting, according to police records, but the 17-year-old grabbed the gun from his father and fired the weapon while reaching under the woman’s arm.
After the injured 18-year-old fell to the ground, he said he heard more gunshots and an unknown woman tried to stop the 17-year-old from shooting him again, according to police records. The injured man’s twin brother, Vilisoni Angilau, then charged the 17-year-old and fought with him over the handgun, investigators wrote in the records, at one point firing two more shots that struck the 17-year-old.
The father then tackled the pair, and in the process two shots hit Vilisoni Angilau, who was killed.
“Our hearts go out to all of those that have been impacted by this alleged act of gun violence,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a news release. “Violence should have no place in our community, especially at a house of worship.”

Jordan Miller