SALT LAKE CITY – ChenWei Guo, 23, a University of Utah student from Beijing, was shot and killed Monday near the east side of the campus, and a suspect in the killing was arrested Tuesday and is being questioned by police.
A Mormon leader in Salt Lake City said Guo, who was killed in a carjacking attempt, had converted to the faith at 16 and convinced his parents to join him.
Steve Comrie said Tuesday that Guo served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Provo in 2013 and 2014.
Comrie said Guo was “the kind of person who was the fizz in the pop of life,” an outgoing, gregarious person who loved hiking and the outdoors.
Guo was shot to death Monday night, touching off a manhunt for the 24-year-old suspect, Austin Boutain, who was also being sought for questioning in a homicide in Golden, a suburb of Denver.
He was arrested at a Salt Lake City library following a call from a librarian.
Police say an alert librarian called Salt Lake City police after spotting a man sought in the carjacking death and the Colorado homicide.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said Tuesday that Boutain, 24, surrendered quietly after the librarian called security guards.
University of Utah Police Chief Dale Brophy says Boutain was being questioned Tuesday.
Police from Colorado were flying in to question him in the death of a 63-year-old man whose body was found Tuesday in a trailer in Golden.
Police believe Boutain had been driving the man’s pickup truck, which remains missing.
Brown says police are still investigating how Boutain evaded a manhunt that started after Guo was found shot to death Monday evening in his car in a canyon near campus.
Rachel Tam of Pleasant Grove, Utah, said Tuesday that Guo loved to dance and wowed his friends on the dance floor in August at a church event for young, unmarried Chinese members of the church.
Tam says Guo was at the center of the dance floor busting out hip hop moves and was also a talented swing and ballroom dancer.
She says he was also dedicated computer science student.
