TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (AP) - Police in Utah are investigating the killing of a 19-year-old woman who was shot in the head and found early Monday in a car with a bullet hole in the windshield in a parking lot south of Salt Lake City.
Detectives briefly took four teenagers into custody for questioning but released them and don’t currently consider them suspects in the death of Maria Alegandra Ayala of West Valley City.
Officers responding to a report of shots fired found the woman in a car that had collided with parked vehicles at an apartment complex in Taylorsville, police Lt. Brian Lohrke said
Investigators found several shell casings on a nearby road and inside the vehicle, Lohrke said, noting that the car apparently was moving when Ayala was shot.
Witnesses reported the four teenagers went into an apartment at the complex shortly after the shooting. Police located them - three boys and a girl, 14 and 15 - and questioned them before releasing them to their guardians.
Lohrke said three of the four were gang members, and at least two had been listed as runaways. He said investigators believe Ayala and the teens knew each other but haven’t determined whether the killing was gang-related.
He said the teens appeared to have been staying at one of the apartment units at the complex.
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