Weekend shooting leads to two arrests and a house being condemned

KEARNS – A shooting inside a Kearns home on Cinco de Mayo has landed two men behind bars.  Investigators say the attack wasn’t the only illegal activity happening at that house.

It happened early in the morning at 5363 West and 5150 South.

“When we got there, we located a 29-year old male with two gunshot wounds,” says Unified Police Lieutenant Brian Lohrke, adding one shot was in the abdomen and the other was in the neck.  The victim is expected to survive.

The first suspect, Dustin Blackner, was arrested in South Salt Lake three days after the shooting.  The second, Robert Phillips, was picked up in a house not far from the shooting on May 9.

“In the initial investigation, we thought that the argument that led up to the shooting was [between] two roommates.  Through our investigation, we determined that was not the case.  However, that dispute did happen and it was over money,” Lohrke says.

The house where the shooting occurred was already under investigation for drug activity.

Lohrke says, “There was a lot of people involved in this house because there was a lot of people in and out of this house. This was kind of a problem house and the neighbors had been working with us.  There was a lot of cooperation from the residents.”

Police have been able to wrap up that investigation after the shooting, and nearby residents are reportedly breathing a sigh of relief, hoping that their “problem house” will be a thing of the past.

“Because of that, and the stuff that we found inside the house, narcotics and paraphernalia, the house was condemned by the Department of Health,” Lohrke says.