Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
- Taylorsville police officer Jimmy Haas is charged with manslaughter for the 2024 killing of Henry Chavez.
- Haas shot Chavez through truck's rear window after vehicle rammed his patrol car, investigators say.
- District Attorney Sim Gill deemed shooting not legally justified; expert found force used was unreasonable.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Taylorsville police officer was found to be not legally justified when he shot an unarmed man through the back windshield of his truck in 2024, killing him, after the man had put his truck in reverse and rammed the officer's patrol car while the officer was not in it.
As a result, officer Jimmy Jeremy Haas, 36, of Salt Lake City, was charged Thursday with manslaughter, a second-degree felony, for the shooting death of 28-year-old Henry Chavez, Jr., Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced.
On Oct. 9, 2024, a Taylorsville police officer patrolling the parking lot of a convenience store at 4500 S. Atherton Drive came across a license plate that did not match the vehicle it was on, and was also reported to have been involved in a chase with Salt Lake police the day before. That officer began following the truck that was being driven by Chavez, according to charging documents. A woman was also in the passenger seat.
Chavez "began making sudden turns into parking lots and side roads. (The officer) requested assistance following the truck from a helicopter operated by the Department of Public Safety," the charges state.
That officer lost sight of the vehicle, but Haas, who was driving an unmarked patrol SUV, spotted the truck and began following. Chavez eventually pulled into a parking lot at 3994 S. 300 West.
"The truck parked between two other vehicles, with the front of the truck facing a building. Seventeen seconds after the truck parked and turned off its lights, Haas pulled up behind the truck, activated his police lights, and stepped out of his vehicle, standing to the rear left of the truck, behind the rear bumper of the vehicle parked next to the truck," according to charging documents.
After Haas stepped out of his patrol car and turned on his emergency lights, the woman in the passenger seat of Chavez's truck got out and the truck went into reverse and rammed Haas' vehicle.
"Haas yells, 'Let me see your hands,' multiple times and tells (the woman) to move. (Body camera video) shows the truck's driver side window down as the truck rolls forward and then rams Haas' vehicle three separate times," according to the charges. "Haas steps further to his left behind a parked car as (the first officer) who has arrived on scene to the right of Haas' vehicle, pulls his police vehicle slowly forward and pins the truck up against the building."
Once the truck is pinned in, Haas moved out from behind the parked car toward the truck.
"(Body camera video) shows Haas' flashlight shining through the rear window into the interior of the truck and the driver of the truck moving across the cab toward the passenger side. ... One second later, Haas shot his gun one time into the rear window of the truck, striking (Chavez). (Chavez) screams, then gets out of the truck through the passenger door and runs east," the court documents say.
Investigators noted that the rear driver side window and rear window of the truck Chavez was driving were tinted.
Chavez ran past a woman who witnessed the shooting and into a nearby open garage.
"As he passed her, (Chavez) cried, '¡Me mataron!' (they killed me)," the charges state.
Officers monitored the garage until backup could arrive. When other officers got to the scene, the first officer was asked, "Does he have a weapon?" The officer responded, "I have no idea," the charges state.
Chavez was found unresponsive inside a car in the garage. He was pulled out 16 minutes after being shot, according to investigators.
Police later interviewed the woman who was in the truck with Chavez. She said Chavez "began freaking out, saying, 'Cop! Cop!' when he realized police were behind him, the charges state. The woman asked Chavez why he was so panicked if he didn't do anything. After Haas parked behind them and turned his emergency lights on and Chavez began to put his truck in reverse, the woman says she told him "to get out and that he was being dumb," to which he responded, "I'm not trying to go to jail."
The woman told police that Chavez did not have any guns on him and police say none were found in the vehicle.
Gill says his office reviewed the shooting case several times internally before sending it to an outside expert in law enforcement operations and police shootings.
"It is my opinion to a reasonable degree of professional certainty, based on the evidence available for analysis, that detective Jimmy Haas' actions in firing his weapon through the rear windshield of the green pickup truck at the driver, including the amount of force used, were not reasonable and consistent with general industry standards for the use of deadly force and officer-involved shootings. Detective Haas failed to follow the Taylorsville Police Department policies and common industry standards in the manner in which he responded to the incident involving Mr. Chavez," Eric Daigle said in his opinion.
Gill says he received that opinion on April 15 and his office reviewed the case again over the past four weeks. He said he notified Taylorsville Police Chief Brady Cottam Wednesday of the decision to charge Haas and talked to Chavez's father Thursday prior to a press conference announcing the charges.
"We have confidence in the system, and we believe every person is innocent until they are proven guilty at trial. We also have a long-standing practice of not publicly commenting on personnel matters, human resource issues, or the substance or status of criminal investigations and charging decisions. Because of this, we won't be providing further comment at this time," a Taylorsville spokeswoman said Thursday.
The last time a police officer in Salt Lake County was charged with manslaughter in connection with a fatal police shooting was the killing of Danielle Willard, 21, in 2012. West Valley police officer Shaun Cowley was charged with manslaughter, a second-degree felony.
Willard was shot and killed on Nov. 2, 2012, while sitting in her car during a botched undercover drug operation by West Valley police. A total of six shots were fired, two by Cowley — including what prosecutors determined to be the fatal shot — and four by fellow detective Kevin Salmon, who was not charged. Cowley told investigators he fired after Willard struck him with her vehicle when she backed it up and he believed she had hit Salmon. But the district attorney's investigative team concluded that Cowley's life was not in danger when he fired at Willard from the side of her vehicle.
The case, however, did not make it past the preliminary hearing stage in 2014. Despite the low probable cause standard the state has to meet, a judge determined there was not enough evidence to bind Cowley over for trial. Willard's parents filed a civl lawsuit against West Valley City and in 2015 the city agreed to pay $1.425 million.
