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← Possible Distraction Patsys

Russell Kennington — Scene-Tampering Report

Russell Kim Kennington's name circulated in connection with a reported arrest at the UVU crime scene. The accounts about him conflict with each other, which is the main reason to treat this carefully rather than as a settled fact.

What is reported — and the conflict​

  • The arrest claim. Screenshots shared online described Kennington, a man in his late thirties and a former U.S. Army combat medic, as arrested for criminal trespass and felony obstruction of justice for allegedly tampering with the crime scene in the hours after the shooting. Some posts paired this with an image of an officer carrying a rifle-shaped object nearby, which commentators debated.
  • The contradicting records response. Separately, people who submitted a GRAMA (Utah public-records) request reported being told that nobody was arrested. This directly conflicts with the booking-screenshot claim.
  • Net status. Because a circulated booking record and a public-records response point in opposite directions, the basic question of whether an arrest even occurred is unresolved on the public record.

Why it draws questions​

A medically-trained person near a fresh crime scene, plus conflicting answers about whether an arrest happened, is the kind of ambiguity that fuels "distraction" theories. But the conflict cuts both ways: it could indicate sloppy or withheld records, or it could indicate that the original arrest claim was wrong. This page does not resolve it and does not assert that Kennington did anything improper.

Open questions​

  1. Did an arrest actually occur, and if so, what were the exact charges and disposition?
  2. Why would a GRAMA response state no arrest if booking screenshots exist?
  3. What, if anything, was he actually doing at or near the scene?

Status​

Status: Alive. Kennington is not accused by this site of any crime; the reported arrest is itself disputed by a public-records response. All claims are attributed and framed as unresolved.

Sources​

  • Conflicting citizen-research material — circulated booking screenshots versus a reported GRAMA public-records response — retained in the project's private investigation file. Only the non-accusatory, conflicting facts are summarized here.