On the evening of March 9, 2021, 32-year-old Alonso Gerardo Garcia Mendoza was shot and killed in a church parking lot at 5305 W. 5400 South in Kearns, Utah. Garcia Mendoza and two friends had gone to the location believing they were meeting for a drug transaction; the meeting was a ruse and turned into a planned robbery. While he sat in the driver’s seat of his BMW the vehicle was ambushed by gunfire. He was fatally wounded, attempted to flee and crashed into a nearby fence. The two occupants with him suffered serious to critical injuries, including one with two collapsed lungs.

Investigators identified four males who approached the car, with two opening fire. Security camera footage and witness accounts helped identify the shooters as Jonathan Montrail Johnson, then 20, and Shihab Wesaga, then 18. Two juveniles, aged 15 and 17, and another adult, Dalmar Mohamed Abdi, were also taken into custody in connection with the incident. In May 2023 a jury convicted Shihab Wesaga of first-degree felony murder, aggravated robbery and multiple counts of felony discharge of a firearm; in October 2023 a jury convicted Jonathan Montrail Johnson on similar charges. The cases against the other co-defendants were still proceeding.

Did anyone in the Kearns area see activity near the church parking lot that night or have information about the planned meeting?