Man accused of Aaron Lowe’s murder has links to unsolved 2020 murder, police confirm

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SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake City man arrested on charges of shooting and killing University of Utah football player Aaron Lowe is also linked to an unsolved murder investigation in Millcreek near one year, the unified police confirmed on Monday.

Although he is not a suspect in this murder, police say they recovered one of the weapons believed to have been used in the fatal Millcreek shooting during one of Buk Mawut Buk’s previous arrests in Salt Lake City. .

Buk, 22, was jailed in Salt Lake County Jail Sunday on charges of aggravated murder, attempted murder and discharging a gun. He is accused of repeatedly shooting Lowe, 21, and Lowe’s girlfriend, 20, in front of a house party on September 26 at 2215 S. Broadmoor Street (2625 East) in Salt Lake. City.

In a troubling jail reservation affidavit, police said Buk fired two or three bullets at the two victims, then approached them after they fell to the ground and fired five or six more times for ” finish them off “. Lowe died at the scene. His partner, whose name has not been released, underwent “heavy surgery”, police said, and remained in hospital on Sunday in critical condition.

In the affidavit, police noted that Buk had “a significant violent criminal history”.

This story includes placing ads on social media and other websites to allegedly sell items and then stealing from people when they showed up to buy them, court records show.

In one case, Buk set up a bogus advertisement selling a cell phone. On October 12, 2019, Buk and a teenage cousin arranged to meet a father and daughter who wanted to buy the phone. But when they arrived at the agreed meeting place to complete the transaction, Buk and the teenager robbed them at gunpoint and knife threat, prosecution documents show.

Buk pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated theft as part of a plea deal and in return other charges against him were dismissed. On June 8, 2020, he was sentenced to a prison term of one to 15 years, but this was suspended and he was instead placed on probation for three years and ordered to serve one year in prison with credit for the 240 days he had had. already served since his arrest.

One of the victims in this case, George Bekmezian, told KSL-TV that he recognized Buk’s name when he learned of his arrest on Sunday.

“I saw his name – Buk Buk,” Bekmezian said. “For me that’s not a very common name, and I’m 22? I did the quick math. He was 20 two years ago. He’s the same guy.”

Bekmezian said he felt “frustration, frankly anger and sadness for Lowe and his family” after seeing that the same man who had robbed him and his daughter was already in the neighborhood again. Street.

“If I were (Lowe’s) family I would like to know why this guy is on the streets today and was arrested for violent crimes just two years ago,” he said. .

“This seems to be a recurring theme that we read a lot about in Utah,” he added. “Violent criminals have minimum sentences, plea deals and they are on the streets.”

“If we had made the criminal justice system work like it was supposed to work, you know this young man would have had some type of rehabilitation or some type of intervention in place to stop this behavior,” said Chris Jackson. , Lowe’s brother. . Jackson is 16 years older than his brother and has said in many ways his death is like losing a son because he was there for all the important stages in his younger brother’s life.

After his arrest in the Bekmezian robbery, the police linked Buk to another similar robbery on May 20, 2019. In this case, Buk arranged to meet a couple who wanted to buy him an iPhone, then he robbed the couple. at gunpoint, according to billing documents. After Buk was arrested for stealing Bekmezian, the other couple said they saw an article on KSL.com about it and recognized Buk as the person who stole them as well.

Buk was convicted of another count of robbery, a second degree felony, in this case and was sentenced on the same terms as his other case as part of a resolution of all his criminal cases.

Then, on November 1, 2020 – five months after his conviction for the two robbery cases – investigators said Buk was in a stolen car with four other people who fled from Salt Lake police. The group eventually got out of the car and ran, but were rounded up by officers and arrested.

Police said Buk was sitting in the back seat of this car. A gun that was stolen in Cheyenne, Wyoming on October 14, 2020, was spotted on the floor of that car, prosecution documents show. Buk also reportedly had ammunition in his pocket.

Although he was initially charged with a felony of being a restrained person in possession of a weapon, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to stop at the order of the forces of the order just before his scheduled jury trial. He was credited with 115 days in jail he had already served and was released, court records show.

Unified Police confirmed to KSL.com on Monday that the weapon recovered in this incident is at least one of the weapons used in the shooting death of a man last year in Millcreek.

In this case, Manuel Felipe Gonzalez-Cortez, 21, of Colombia, was shot dead on October 18, 2020, outside a car wash near 635 W. 3900 South. No arrests were made in this case. Ballistic tests, however, matched the weapon found in the vehicle Buk was in with the shell casings recovered from the car wash, police said.

Unified Police Sgt. Melody Cutler said on Monday that Buk was not a suspect in Gonzalez-Cortez’s death. However, as this is an ongoing investigation, she declined to answer any further questions about the case, including whether detectives had determined how Buk came into possession of the weapon and whether any of his associates could be seen as a person of interest in Gonzalez-Cortez’s death. .

Police have requested that Buk remain in the Salt Lake County Jail without bond pending formal charges by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office in connection with Lowe’s death.

Contributing: Andrew Adams, Dan Rascon

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