SALT LAKE CITY — Early March 9, 2025 the Unified Police Department responded to a report of a suicide by gun shot. However, after further investigation evidence now indicates homicide, according to officials. 

When UPD officers first entered the apartment they saw a man lying on the living room floor left shoulder against the sofa. The man was pronounced dead on scene, according to a police statement. The man was identified as D.P. in police documents. 

Witness statements

According to statements from witness, on March 8, seven friends gathered together to hang out and drink. 

In police documents the friends are referred to as F.C., G.C., D.P. S.T., N.D, B.K. and Deng Martin Auling.

F.C. and G.C. are brothers who live in the apartment together. G.C. said in a statement said that D.P. had come over that afternoon and they had been drinking vodka until the bottle was gone.

F.C. said he had gone to bed around 3:00 am. G.C. had also gone to bed at some point and S.T., also tired was sleeping in G.C.’s room.

S.T. said he woke up to a “bang,” then Auling came into the room saying they had been playing with a gun when it had gone off and D.P. had shot himself.

When S.T. entered the living room he said he saw B.K., Auling, N.D., G.C. and D.P. on the floor but didn’t see any wounds. He also said in the commotion no one was helping D.P.

Around the same time F.C. was woken up by N.D. saying they needed to take D.P. to the hospital. F.C. went into the living room, where he saw D.P. on the ground and saw B.K., N.D. S.T. and Auling standing over him saying he had shot himself. F.C. asked if anyone had called the police yet. N.D. said they hadn’t yet.

G.C. had also been woken up by N.D. and was the one who called 911 but eventually handed the phone to N.D. since he hadn’t seen anything happen. 

Evidence

After D.P. was declared dead police searched the apartment and found a tan 9mm handgun under the bathroom sink in a shaving kit. Both the gun and the shaving kit were wet. 

In a police statement from S.T. he said he never saw a gun on Auling but knew he always carried a tan 9mm on him.

Officers also found an unplugged camera that was connected to an Xfinity account. C.G. gave the videos to detectives, and they were able to obtain audio from it.

The following timeline of audio was provided by police in a statement:

• At 4:06 A.M. sounds of a gun could be heard.
• At 4:40 A.M. frantic conversation could be heard. And  Auling can be heard saying in part, “he not dead … he not dead bruh … get up, you’re not dead … I gotta make a phone call.” 
• At 4:44 A.M. Auling is heard talking about D.P. being dead, how they were just playing around and that he already knew he was going to do life. 

An autopsy of the victim indicated that it was a contact gunshot would, entering just under the left shoulder. Projectile entered the back, bounced around, struck the heart and was lodged in the sternum.

Charges

As police were collecting a witness statement from C.G. Auling tried several times tried to talk to him and made hand signals to get them to stop talking. Police also noted in their statement that many of the witnesses statements didn’t line up, but based on the audio 911 wasn’t called for 20 minutes after the shooting happened. 

Deng Martin Auling, 31, is now accused of murder, obstruction of justice and tampering with a witness. 

Statements from N.D. and B.K. were absent from the police statement. 

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