William Nakai, 46, male, was fatally shot on May 18, 2017, in Aneth, Utah, a small community on the Navajo Nation in San Juan County. Initial alerts locked down nearby schools as law enforcement searched for a suspect, and the FBI joined the Navajo Police and San Juan County Sheriff's Office in the investigation. According to reporting at the time, officers were called shortly after 2 p.m., and the case immediately drew a multijurisdictional response because it occurred on tribal land.
Witness accounts compiled by Navajo Nation police indicated the shooting unfolded during a family confrontation at a residence. Investigators were told that Nakai accused his cousin, Fernando Hill, of “messing around” with his wife. In the ensuing argument, Hill reportedly drew a handgun and shot Nakai in the abdomen. Family members intervened, striking Hill with a bat and knocking him unconscious, and they later turned over the firearm to police. Nakai was rushed from the local clinic by ambulance but died while being transported to a hospital. When officers arrived at the scene, Hill could not be found and was considered at large.
In the days that followed, federal agents interviewed the suspected shooter and family members but announced no arrests. Community radio updates emphasized that authorities did not believe there was an ongoing threat to public safety, even as details—such as the identities of those involved—were initially withheld. The lack of immediate charges and the careful public statements reflected the case's sensitivity and the overlapping authorities involved in violent crimes on the reservation.
By the end of the year, a statewide review of homicides reported that the U.S. Attorney's Office, which screens cases arising on tribal lands in Utah, declined to file charges in Nakai's death without specifying the reason. That summary reiterated the account that the fatal shooting followed Nakai's accusation toward Hill about an alleged relationship with his wife, aligning with early Navajo Nation reports. The public record thus shows no arrest or prosecution stemming from the incident, and it does not include a publicly stated rationale for the declination decision.
Local obituaries published soon after the killing recorded the victim's name as Weylin Nakai and confirmed his age and date of death in Aneth, reinforcing the timeline established by law enforcement and news reports. That contemporaneous notice, while not addressing the circumstances of the shooting, situates the family's mourning within days of the event and remains one of the only items in the public record that identifies him outside the investigative narrative.
