In the early morning hours of April 28, 2019, the life of 22-year-old Jake Gengelbach was tragically cut short in a senseless act of violence. Responding to reports of gunfire at an apartment complex in West Valley City, Utah, police discovered Gengelbach's body in the parking lot of a nearby Hire's Big H restaurant. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the back, and shell casings littered the ground around him.
The investigation into the death of the young man, a male, quickly
led police to three individuals who were acquainted with him. The day after the shooting, a SWAT team surrounded a home in the neighboring city of Sandy. As they prepared to execute a search warrant, 18-year-old Hassan Al-Rekabi was apprehended after he drove away from the residence. Following his arrest, Al-Rekabi confessed to shooting Gengelbach multiple times with a semi-automatic handgun and then discarding the weapon as he fled on foot.
Two other young men, 19-year-old Samuel Maile Niu and 21-year-old Bryan Zumaya-Garcia, were also taken into custody. Both were present at the time of the shooting and were subsequently arrested for investigation of obstruction of justice for failing to report the crime. Investigators also discovered that in the aftermath of the shooting, Al-Rekabi had been searching online for ways to quickly renew his passport, and an anonymous tipster informed police that he was planning to flee the state. Al-Rekabi was later formally charged with murder, discharge of a firearm, and obstructing justice.
