- Detective Cody Pender was determined Wednesday to be legally justified in shooting at Nicholas Sickler in March 2024.
- Sickler rammed police vehicles while fleeing and drove at Pender.
- Sickler later pleaded guilty to assault on officers and is serving a prison sentence.
SOUTH SALT LAKE — A Unified police officer working with the Metro Gang Unit was legally justified in shooting at a wanted man who rammed two police vehicles while trying to get away.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Wednesday that detective Cody Pender will not face criminal charges for shooting at Nicholas David Sickler on March 8, 2024.
On that day, members of the gang unit were looking for Sickler who had fled from Salt Lake police earlier in the day. Officers staked out the Commons apartments, 2860 S. 200 East. They spotted him in a vehicle he had stolen and attempted to box him in, according to Gill's report.
But as police closed in, Sickler used the Nissan Xterra he was driving to hit an unmarked police vehicle. Another police vehicle then rammed Sickler's vehicle in an effort to stop him.
"The Xterra then accelerated forward, ramming the front end of (the detective's) Ford F-150 and driving in the direction of detective Pender who was out on foot and backing away with a fence line behind him," the report states. "As the Xterra accelerated forward, detective Pender fired two shots."
Pender later recounted to investigators that he thought the officer that was hit was seriously injured or dead, and Sickler was now driving toward him.
"At that point, me and the suspect locked eyes. And I'm like, 'Oh (expletive),' you know, like, 'This is a bad, bad day to be a cop,' right?" he said. "And so all I could do to try to get out of the way was backpedal.
"I was in fear for my life at that point. I thought he was gonna run me over," Pender continued. "And there was nowhere for me to go. I tried to get outta the way, I tried to, you know, diffuse the situation I guess you would say by moving backwards … but I couldn't go any further .... I was stuck, essentially."
In past investigations, Gill has found officers who shoot at a vehicle driving away from them not to be legally justified in using deadly force, as well as officers who put themselves in danger by jumping in front of a moving vehicle and then shoot.
"In this case, what you see Pender do is he gets out, he's not going up and standing in front of the vehicle. He's actually trying to go off to the side. So the question becomes, 'At the moment he pulls the trigger, what is his perception?'" Gill said Wednesday during a press conference to go over the findings of his investigation.
In this case, when the Xterra was hit by the police vehicle it was turned into the direction of Pender. Pender found himself directly facing the vehicle in the small carport area.
"As it comes forward, (Pender) doesn't know whether (Sickler) is going to run him over," Gill said.
The first shot fired by Pender was straight on and went through Sicker's windshield on the driver's side and exited through the back window. The second shot hit the hood of the vehicle on the passenger side at an angle as Sickler began to turn. Gill said the trajectory of the shots was an important piece of evidence to help show what Pender was seeing.
Gill says he also appreciates that Pender agreed to speak with investigators, something he is not required to do but resulted in helping the district attorney's office reach its decision.
"This is why an officer's statement is so important to us, because it helps me really get to the context. It's not about whether he is factually correct. What I'm trying to understand is what is he experiencing at the moment he make the decision to pull the trigger," Gill said.
After Pender fired his shots, Sicker turned and drove off. He was not injured in the shooting. Another officer was able to spike two of Sickler's tires as he exited the apartment complex. His vehicle was found abandoned a short time later and Sickler was arrested near 3500 South and 700 East by West Valley police.
Sickler, 33, later pleaded guilty to two counts of assault on an officer, a second-degree felony; and failing to stop for police, a third-degree felony. He was sentenced to four years of probation, but a warrant was issued for his arrest in April for failing to follow the conditions of his probation. He was rearrested and ordered to serve his original sentence of one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.
