- Branden Scott Markham, 36, was shot and killed by police during a Draper traffic stop.
- Markham, a registered sex offender, had a long criminal history with outstanding warrants.
DRAPER — The man shot and killed by police during a traffic stop on I-15 in Draper on Tuesday was a registered sex offender with a long criminal history.
Riverton police announced Friday that Branden Scott Markham, 36, of Salem, was the man who was fatally wounded.
About 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, a Riverton police officer pulled over a Cadillac on southbound I-15 just south of the Bangerter Highway interchange as part of a drug investigation.
"During the traffic stop, the ... passenger was observed to have a handgun on his person by one of the patrol officers. The male was ordered out of the vehicle and requested to hand over his handgun for officer safety purposes. The male refused to relinquish the handgun and began fighting patrol officers outside of the vehicle," according to a police booking affidavit.
Police shot Markham during the altercation. He was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and later died from his injuries.
According to court records, Markham was convicted of two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, in 2008 and was sentenced to a term of two to 30 years in the Utah State Prison and was placed on the Utah Sex Offender and Kidnap Registry. He was granted parle in 2016.
Then in December 2024, he was charged in 4th District Court with three second-degree felonies, including theft of a firearm and being a restricted person in possession of a gun. A pretrial conference was scheduled a year later, but Markham failed to show up for the hearing and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Markham was also charged in 4th District Court in March 2025 with three counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, for incidents that allegedly happened in 2023. A second warrant was issued for his arrest in December when he failed to show up for a court hearing in that case. Both warrants remained outstanding as of the time of his arrest.
The officer who shot Markham has been placed on standard paid administrative leave. The driver of the vehicle was taken into custody.
Herriman police detectives were conducting surveillance at a home as part of an "active narcotics investigation," and they observed two men leave the house in a Cadillac car before it was eventually pulled over.
An arrest report notes that the driver, Shawn Michael Shalosky, 47, "remained compliant with officers during the altercation." He was eventually booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of drug possession after police reported finding cocaine in his pocket.
