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Crime & Courts

Utah Man Charged With Federal Hate Crime in Stabbing of Muslim Mall Worker; Case Undecided

Federal prosecutors allege Peter Larsen, 48, of Orem attacked an employee at the West Valley Mall on July 13. The case is at the charging stage: no trial, no plea, no verdict. It has not been decided.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 13, 2026, 1:14 a.m. ET

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Peter Larsen, 48, of Orem, Utah, has been with a federal hate crime in the stabbing of a Muslim employee at the West Valley Mall in West Valley City, Utah, according to reporting by BNO News. The charge carries a statutory maximum of . The case has not been decided. Larsen has been and nothing further has happened: there has been no trial, no plea, no finding of guilt, no acquittal and no sentence. He is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court. Anyone reading this report at a later date should treat the matter as still open unless a more current record shows how it ended. Federal prosecutors say Larsen held anti-Muslim views and went to the mall on July 13 specifically to attack Muslims, BNO News reported. Prosecutors allege he bought a knife at a store inside the mall, asked employees whether they were Muslim, and stabbed a Muslim employee multiple times, including in the neck, until bystanders intervened and detained him. Those statements are the prosecution's allegations. None of them has been tested or established in court. This report cannot describe a verdict, a plea, a count-by-count outcome or a sentencing date, because the case has reached none of those stages.

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  1. Version 113 Aug 2026, 05:14current

    First published.

  2. Version 113 Aug 2026, 05:08current

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  3. Version 113 Aug 2026, 05:20

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