Crime & Safety

Handy man shot dead in West Valley City; suspect is neighbor angered by noise, police say

Published

4 years ago

May 29, 2020

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — (UPDATE Saturday at 2 p.m.) — 39-year-old Melvin Martinez was identified by West Valley City police to be the victim killed in the incident.

(UPDATE Friday at 4:09 p.m.) — Police have arrested Jesus Adolfo Valdez Jr. on charges related to the shooting death of a handyman in West Valley City, Utah Thursday.

Noise made by a handyman working on a West Valley City home may have been a motive in his death, according to the West Valley City Police Department.

The victim was hired to do some handyman/construction work on a home near 2900 South 3000 West.

It wasn’t the first time the man had been hired to do work at the home, and police say he developed a “negative relationship” with neighbors because of noise generated by his work.

Just after 4 p.m. Thursday, the people who live in the home the victim was working on came home to find his body with “a visible injury.”

That injury, police later determined, was a gunshot wound.

During their investigation police narrowed in on their suspect, who is a neighbor of the home, and had been “disturbed by the construction noise.”

Police say the suspect hid the weapon and fled the area. Police tracked down the suspect Friday, just before noon at a home near 1700 W. Indiana Avenue in Salt Lake City.

Police have yet not named the victim pending the notification of the victim’s family.