SOUTH JORDAN – Police say they feel very lucky someone wasn’t seriously hurt, or even killed after someone apparently used cars on Bangerter Highway as moving targets.
While Jennie Sorensen was driving south on Bangerter Highway approaching The District, her passenger’s side window smashed open, and she could feel a pain in her leg. “At first, I thought I was shot, so, I started feeling all over. I’m just grateful my kids weren’t in the car,” she says. If her son had been in the front seat, she believes he could have been hit in the face.
Investigators say two other cars also had their windows smashed by slingshot bearings around the same area on Wednesday.
(Photo Credit: South Jordan Police)
Sorensen estimates she was traveling at over 50 miles an hour, and she’s grateful she didn’t lose control of her car. She adds, “I’m hoping it was a kid that was naïve and didn’t understand how serious it could be. If it was an adult, that’s a whole different thought.”
If the slingshot shooter was a kid who didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, South Jordan Police Lieutenant Matt Pennington says, perhaps, a discussion between police and their parents would solve most of the problem. However, they wouldn’t be able to completely avoid legal trouble. “You also have a passenger who was hit which could be considered aggravated assault,” Pennington says.
At a high rate of speed, Pennington says even things like water balloons and snowballs can cause significant damage to a car and force drivers to crash into other vehicles. He adds, “Luckily, no one was seriously injured, last night. When you talk about that type of speed colliding with a steel ball bearing, you could easily seriously hurt somebody, or even kill them.”
