KEARNS, Utah — A father has been arrested after he allegedly gave his 17-year-old son the gun used to kill one person in a deadly shooting outside a Kearns funeral.
Afuhia Masiu Manatau, 45, was arrested following Monday's shooting and faces one count of Murder and Felony Discharge of a Firearm.
Manatau was taken into custody after stopping a vehicle that had allegedly fled the stake center where the funeral was being held in the aftermath of the shooting. Inside the vehicle that was stopped near 4100 West 4517 South, police found Manatau's 17-year-old son with a gunshot wound to his chest.
At the same time as the traffic stop, a Toyota pickup truck arrived at the scene, driven by an unidentified 16-year-old, with a 19-year-old passenger.
According to the arrest report, a crowd gathered and attempted to fight the teen pickup driver and passenger. During the scuffle, officers "were notified the shooter is in the vehicle," the documents stated, "and a firearm was located in [passenger's] waistband."
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Later in the investigation, two witnesses said they saw Afuhia Manatau's 17-year-old son and another person fighting outside the stake center. Manatau allegedly pulled out a firearm and gave it to his son, who then shot the victim he was fighting.
In the aftermath of that shooting, another male rushed into Manatau's son and grabbed his gun after knocking it out of the teen's hand. The other male then allegedly shot the teen twice before he was tackled by Manatau and shot himself.
While the Unified Police Department did not confirm the information, a flyer shared that the funeral was for Ofa'tangikivaha Angilau, the 23-year-old man killed in a shooting at a Riverton gas station on Aug. 7.
