2 indicted on firearm charges in connection with shooting outside Utah church

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted two men on firearms charges in connection with a shooting last month in a church parking lot in Salt Lake City that left two people dead and six more injured.

The indictment unsealed Friday charges 32-year-old Ryan Toutai with unlawful disposition of a firearm and 26-year-old Fineeva Maka with felon in possession of a firearm, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said.

Investigators used cellphone videos and photos and GPS ankle monitor evidence to tie the two men to a pistol recovered from the Jan. 7 shooting, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors allege the two men are gang members.

The violence took place in the back parking lot of a place of worship for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon church. Investigators have said the shooting broke out from a dispute between people who knew each other and were attending a funeral. All the victims were adults. No one has yet been charged in the actual killings.

The church mostly serves Tongan congregants, its website says. In the 1890s, LDS missionaries brought their faith to Tonga, an archipelago in the South Pacific. More than 25% of the U.S. Tongan population resides in Utah, the headquarters of the church.

Toutai and Maka are scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. It wasn’t clear if they had attorneys and The Associated Press could not immediately reach them for comment. The federal public defender’s office also could not be reached.

Police previously arrested Toutai for a charge of felony obstruction of justice in the case. He was in jail on Saturday. A third man also was arrested on the same charge.