Who Are The Tongan Crips? Utah Courtroom Shooting Video Shows Gangmember Attack

Almost four years after a dramatic courtroom incident, authorities in Salt Lake City on Monday released footage that showed the fatal shooting of a defendant who charged at a witness during a federal trial.

Defendant and alleged Tongan Crips gang member Siale Angilau can be seen with pen in hand, lunging at a witness on the stand inside the Salt Lake City Federal Courthouse during the April 2014 trial.

An unidentified deputy fired four shots killing Angilau, according to court documents obtained by KSTU-TV, a Fox affiliate in Salt Lake City.

U.S. District Judge John Dowdell on Friday dismissed the Angilau family’s excessive force suit. The judge argued the officer and the witness had nowhere to maneuver during the attack and therefore had to fire his weapon. The shooting led to a mistrial in the case.

The Tongan Crip Gang, also known as TCG, are a Tongan-American subset of the Crips street gang based out of south Los Angeles. The Tongan Crips, who reportedly formed in the late 1980s, are the first and only Polynesian/Pacific-Islander gang stationed in that area, according to United Gangs, a site about gang culture.

Aside from California, the Tongan Crips are active in Salt Lake City and internationally, including New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Angilau, who was 25 years old, was among 17 Tongan Crips named in the 2010 federal indictment under racketeering, conspiracy, robbery and assault charges. Other defendants reportedly received jail sentences that ranged from 10 to 30 years.

Various media outlets and organizations, including the Associated Press and Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and aided by attorneys, filed a motion to have the video publicized, according to Deseret News.

"We applaud Magistrate Judge Paul Cleary's decision in November finding the courtroom security video to be a matter of public record, and U.S. District Judge John Dowdell's order on Friday upholding that ruling," McKenzie Romero, the president of Utah Headliners, said in a statement.