Horror and healing — The Chevys shootings

It could have happened to any family enjoying a peaceful dinner out. Three years ago, the lives of a 12-year-old girl, a young father, a talented musician, a waiter and a killer collided at a popular family restaurant.

The violence and randomness of the Chevys shootings captured Utahns' attention as few cases have.

Deseret Morning News special projects reporter Lucinda Dillon Kinkead spent three months investigating this case. This week in a four-part series, "Crossing Paths With a Killer," she tells the powerful stories of victims who met Quinn Robert Martinez that April night and how that encounter changed their lives. And she examines how Martinez, a middle-class young man from an LDS family, turned to meth and murder.

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There is a Friday night feeling in the air, although it is Thursday.

Birthdays are like that, and Whitney's big brother turns 17 today. Dinner at Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant was fun, and now her family is headed to Snowbird resort for the night. It is a special weeknight treat, and Whitney and Dad are riding in the Berg family Bonneville. Mom drove her own car to the restaurant, and she and PJ, the birthday boy, are going on their own up the mountain.

There are no goodbyes as the family parts ways, just a quick "we'll follow you."

Twelve-year-old Whitney Berg fiddles with her Sony Discman in the front seat and chides Peter Berg, 43, in the moments that pass as he settles behind the wheel.

Whitney feels the passenger door open and sees the gun at the same time. She takes in the man with baggy pants and a blue, button-down shirt behind the handgun. She hears his order: "Get out of the car." Then louder. "Get out of the car!"

Watching Dad obey, Whitney does the same.

"Give me the keys!" the man with a goatee shouts, rounding the back of the car and advancing toward Peter Berg.

In seconds, Whitney watches Dad toss the car keys away from the car. She sees the flash as the assailant responds, firing two shots that pound her father in the shoulder and chest, and watches as he falls to the pavement.

Whitney screams.

The gunman scrambles to look for the car keys, then returns to her critically injured father.

"Go get the keys," he tells Berg as the wounded man struggles to rise. "They're over there," Peter Berg says, nodding away from him, away from Whitney.

Agitated by drinking and two weeks of shooting meth, the gunman trains his weapon and shouts at the wounded man who can't possibly follow the order. "Go get the keys!" he yells, even as Peter Berg collapses to the ground.