Richard E. Turley

“According to Hoag’s recollection, Lee told his congregation about encountering an emigrant man holding his baby. “Give up that child,” Lee demanded. The emigrant seemed to know Lee and his beliefs. “No, Lee,” he replied. “I recognize you,” and “you know the penalty of shedding innocent blood.” If Lee was going to shoot, the man said, Lee would have to kill the child too, and bear the consequences. The Bible condemned those who shed innocent blood, meaning those who were blameless, and Latter-day Saints taught that shedders of innocent blood forfeited their chance to enter the highest heaven.21 Lee gave the emigrant another chance to hand over the baby, but he refused. “Then,” Lee told his congregation, “it was [my] turn to shoot.” He killed the baby and the man with the same bullet. Defending his actions to the stunned Harmony residents, Lee explained that he did not “consider himself under the penalty of shedding innocent blood.” The killing of the baby, he said, could not be helped.”
― Richard E. Turley, Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath