Utah realtor fatally shot after trying to evict tenants: Police

Authorities, who found his body in a hidden crawl space in the Salt Lake City apartment, arrested one of the tenants

David Stokoe (Credit: Facebook)
David Stokoe (Credit: Facebook)

A Utah real estate agent was shot and killed after he tried to evict tenants from a Salt Lake City apartment he owned.

David Stokoe, a 40-year-old associate broker at Ranlife Real Estate, was likely killed on Thursday when he went to the apartment to evict two tenants, Manuel Velasquez, and Jessica Reese, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Police found Stokoe’s body in a hidden crawl space. Velasquez, a convicted felon, later admitted to the shooting and was arrested, police said.

Velasquez told police that Stokoe put him in a “very serious” chokehold after kicking down the front door to the apartment on Thursday. But Stokoe’s family told the newspaper that he wouldn’t start a fight and that they believed he was set up by his tenant.

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During the struggle, Velasquez told police that he reached for a handgun and shot Stokoe multiple times, according to court documents cited by the Salt Lake Tribune. Velasquez is in jail on suspicion of murder, obstruction of justice, possession of a firearm by a restricted person and a felony-level discharge of a firearm offense.

A well-known South Florida broker was recently shot and killed by her brother-in-law, who later killed himself. [Salt Lake Tribune] Katherine Kallergis