Elderly 'Nice Guy' Shot 4 Times Answering Door

An elderly Utah man described as "too nice of a guy" answered a knock at his door Saturday night and was shot multiple times by an unknown assailant, KSL.com reports. His wife apparently saw the dark-clothed gunman running away when she hurried to her 72-year-old husband, whose name has not been released, lying in the doorway. He took four shots to the chest, neck, and head, a neighbor says, and is still hospitalized in critical condition. "I just don't understand," says the neighbor, Erin Wyttenbach. "He was too nice of a guy." Wyttenbach adds that he had rental properties, "taking care of people and all of that kind of stuff," and she had "never seen him with any enemies."

"On the surface, it's pretty frightening," says a police lieutenant in West Valley City. "We really don't have a motive. We're not sure if it was mistaken identity." The couple had just returned from a symphony concert at 10:40pm when the knock came, leading Wyttenbach to believe that "either they were waiting for him or they followed him home or something, I have no idea." Investigators tell the Salt Lake Tribune that no one has come forth with another description of the assailant or a possible motive. "It's really baffling," says the lieutenant. (Also this weekend in Utah, a family of five died mysteriously in their home.)