Man found dead at West Valley City apartment complex, police open homicide investigation

This is a developing story. ABC4 will update this post as new information becomes available.

WEST VALLEY CITY ( ABC4 ) — After a man was found dead in a West Valley apartment complex on Tuesday night, officials began investigating his death as a homicide.

The West Valley City Police Department posted on social media Tuesday night and said a passerby noticed “a person with an apparent gunshot wound lying in the parking lot” of an apartment complex near 3300 S 1200 W.

Officers were dispatched to the scene just after 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and police said the victim appeared to be an adult male. Lt. Bill Merritt with West Valley City Police told ABC4.com that officers were not initially able to find the victim until they were flagged down.

The male victim was found dead, but the cause of death and the victim’s identity were not confirmed as of late Tuesday night. While the suspect is still at large, Merritt said officials don’t believe there is a threat to the public.

“There’s some evidence on-scene — that we can’t quite talk about just yet — that leads us to believe this was not random,” Merritt said. “This was not somebody who was just a random victim of a crime. We believe that there was probably some affiliation between the suspect and the victim.”

Part of the apartment complex was closed off Tuesday night until detectives and the forensics team were able to complete their investigation.

“We’re confident that we’re gonna be able to gain some leads and figure out who it was that did this, and we’ll bring them to justice,” Merritt said.

Anyone with information about the incident has been asked to call 801-840-4000.

There is no further information at this time.

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