Utah Man Fatally Shoots Mother At Dinner Table, Then Dances With 14-Year-Old Sister

A man fatally shot his mother inside their home in Springville, Utah, and then danced with his sister.

The probable cause statement obtained by ABC 4, stated that the accused, identified as 23-year-old Mike Lopez, approached his mother at the dinner table Wednesday evening and shot and killed her in front of his younger sisters.

His 17-year-old sibling then ran to the bathroom and locked herself inside. She then managed to jump out of the window and ran half a block away to call her older sister and inform her that her mother had been shot.

The older sister in turn called the Springville Police Department. Officers responded to the home and found 43-year-old Victoria Ramirez dead with a gunshot wound to her neck. The officers then found the suspect "acting unresponsive" in a bathtub in the home’s basement. He was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors said he was "faking his condition." A blood test revealed that Lopez had THC in his system.

Meanwhile, the 17-year-old sibling told the officers that she believed her 14-year-old sister knew about the shooting as the suspect and the girl had nodded at each other just before the man shot the mother. She added that the suspect and 14-year-old started dancing after the shooting took place, the outlet reported.

The 17-year-old girl also told the officers she believes her brother had been supplying the younger sister with marijuana and had also been "meditating a lot where he claims to go to different dimensions and [was] talking about a lot of bad people," the statement said.

Police also spoke to the 14-year-old sister after safely escorting her away from the scene. She said that Lopez had bought the gun the day prior to the incident. She told the officers that she was in the bathroom when her brother shot their mother.

When asked about dancing with her brother after the shooting, the girl smiled at officers and said she "remembered dancing." She, however, denied that she knew her brother had planned to kill their mother.

In the statement, the interviewing officers indicated that the 14-year-old girl was "acting very strange" and "did not show any emotion during the interview."

Lopez has since been booked into the Utah County Jail. The charges levied against him were not known.