Police are trying to sort out events after one man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Midvale and the shooter died by suicide after a high-speed chase.
At 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Ray Paul Willie Vasquez, 40, was shot to death in his vehicle outside a Maverik gas station at 7728 S. Main St. in Midvale. The suspect — Jose Luis Garcia, 24 — was in a black Jeep Wrangler; he drove off after firing several times.
Police spotted the Jeep in Cottonwood Heights shortly before midnight and tried to pull it over. Garcia drove away, crashing the Jeep into a fence at Peruvian Park Elementary School at 1545 E. 8425 South, police said. When officers approached the vehicle they found Garcia had shot himself, according to Sgt. Melody Gray of Unified Police,
The school itself was not damaged and classes were scheduled to proceed as usual on Thursday.
Police said the two men knew each other, although they did not reveal how. “It’s still under investigation, but we want people to know this was not random,” said Detective Kevin Mallory of Unified Police.
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