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Two in custody, two outstanding, one injured after neighbors intervene in home burglary

Posted at 3:52 PM, Jul 10, 2015
and last updated 2015-07-12 18:23:07-04

KEARNS, Utah – Two women are in custody for an alleged burglary, assault and police pursuit and two male suspects are still on the run after three different neighbors noticed suspicious activity at a home and went to investigate Thursday night.

According to information from the Unified Police Department, police were called to a home in the area of 4000 West 5900 South in Kearns around 8:36 p.m. on report of burglary suspects who had fled and a woman who had been shot, though they would later learn the shooting was done with a pellet gun and not a firearm.

As police were responding, they spotted the maroon Lexus described by witnesses and chased it from Kearns to Taylorsville and onto I-215. The suspects stopped prior to Redwood Road.

“The driver pulled over to the side of the road and the female passenger got out and ran on foot,” said Chef Deputy Justin Hoyal of UPD. “Officers had to chase her to actually catch her and take her into custody. The driver remained in the car and was arrested there at the scene.”

Officers later learned that four suspects, the two women in custody and two males still at large, had allegedly broken into a home. The two males arrived and parked in a purple Subaru across the street while the women in the Lexus parked farther down the street. One male remained in the Subaru and the other three suspects approached the home.

After knocking on the door and getting no answer, the three suspects allegedly walked to the back of the home and forced entry through a window. Three different neighbors from different homes noticed what was going on and went to confront them.

A male suspect came out of the victim’s home and told the neighbors they were looking for a person. The neighbors said that person doesn’t live here, and they went around back to see the broken window and two females inside running toward the front of the home. The male got into the Subaru and fled.

One female suspect tried to exit through the front of the home with property from inside while the second female suspect spoke to neighbors at the back of the home and repeated the claim they were looking for a specific person, who neighbors again said did not live at the residence.

As the one suspect tried to leave with property, the neighbors tackled her to keep her from leaving and others called police. The other suspect got in the Lexus and went to pick up the other suspect.

“…Pulled up in front of the house and was yelling for her accomplice to get in, but the neighbors weren’t allowing her to get up and leave, they were holding her, telling her they were calling police,” Hoyal said. “The female suspect that was in the car, she got out with a handgun and began firing rounds, we later learned following the chase it was a pellet gun that she had used, but had begun firing multiple rounds at the neighbors, striking one of them, a 52-year-old female, in the head as a result.”

As the woman began firing the pellet gun, the other suspect was able to escape and  two women then fled in the car, but as stated prior were later arrested by police who were responding.

The woman who fired the pellet gun is identified as 22-year-old Dakota Hallman and the other female suspect is 39-year-old SeAnne Martinez. Both were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail and face charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and fleeing from police.

The two male suspects have not been identified and are still outstanding. They were driving a purple Subaru passenger vehicle.

Anyone with information about the crime or suspects is asked to call Unified PD at 385-468-9831.

The victim who was shot by the pellet gun was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Hoyal said they are fortunate nothing was stolen and that the injuries were not more severe. He said oftentimes neighbors don’t know who lives nearby and can’t tell who should be there or not, and he said even when they notice something suspicious, not everyone takes action.

“But, in this particular case, the neighbors did a great job of watching out for their neighbor, of going over when they see something that wasn’t right and acting,” Hoyal said.