Attracted by the Mormon church, whose missionaries were active in the Pacific Islands for years, many Tongans first immigrated to Southern California, then moved to Utah in part to escape the gang influence. But, Stallworth said, “A natural consequence of that move was the transfer of the gang culture.”
Siale Angilau, a Tongan Crips gang member, was fatally shot by a U.S. marshal inside Salt Lake City’s federal courthouse during his trial.
Just before gunfire rang out last month in a heavily guarded federal courtroom, Hema Katoa saw the defendant suddenly rise from his chair and charge the man in the witness box who was testifying against him.
It was a stunning development that played out in full view of the judge and jury on the first day of a racketeering conspiracy trial involving an accused gang member who would ultimately collapse on the courtroom floor, fatally wounded by a U.S. marshal.
A month later, the incident is shining a harsh spotlight on the unusual origins of a criminal gang that continues to thrive in a most unlikely place — Salt Lake City — and raises new questions about the extraordinary strategies law enforcement officials are employing to combat the group.
The weight of the morning’s trauma did not fully register until hours later, when Katoa learned that his nephew, part of Salt Lake City’s tightly knit Tongan community who had been swept into the ranks of a brutal affiliate of the Crip street gang, was dead.
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