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SALT LAKE CITY — Police have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with a murder investigation after a burglary ended in a fatal shooting Saturday night, according to court documents.
Police arrested Colton Beed, 20, and booked him into the Salt Lake County Jail on Sunday for allegedly attempting to steal drugs from a home and shooting a person who confronted him on his way out of the Salt Lake City home, according to a probable cause statement released in 3rd District Court.
Beed and a group of others drove to the home near 400 N. Star Crest Drive around 8 p.m. Saturday night where they planned to break in and steal controlled substances, according to the statement.
Beed and the others allegedly entered the home after others in the group forced their way in through a side door. Beed, wearing a black ski mask, "rummaged through the house looking for property (drugs)" while an unnamed victim hid inside the bathroom, the statement said.
The victim tried to call 911 but couldn't get through before calling a friend who was at work a short distance away, police wrote in the statement.
Beed and his group then left the home and drove a short distance away until deciding to go back to steal more drugs as well as a vehicle parked in the driveway, police alleged. Beed and the others again entered the home and took drugs and paraphernalia.
As Beed exited the home a second time, the victim's friend confronted Beed and his party. The man, whom police later identified as Mason Hunt, 26, was struck over the head with a rifle and then shot, according to the statement.
Hunt was transported to a hospital but died shortly after, police said.
Beed drove the "getaway vehicle," police said, and dropped everyone in his group off at their homes. Beed threw a mask out of the vehicle, police said, before arriving at his house, where he threw away latex gloves he allegedly wore during the burglary, according to the statement.
Police said Beed admitted to the information in the statement during an interview.
Beed was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of one count of murder, a first-degree felony, two counts of aggravated burglary, both first-degree felonies, and one count of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
