- Salt Lake County DA announced no charges for officer in April 3 shooting.
- Detective Michael Darelli shot Lawrence Vigil during a SWAT operation in Salt Lake City.
- Vigil, charged with multiple felonies, faces a preliminary hearing on July 6.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City police officer who shot and injured a man while a SWAT team was serving a search warrant will not be criminally charged, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Friday.
Detective Michael Darelli shot Lawrence Lute Vigil, 37, shortly after midnight on April 3 near 49 South and 800 East.
The Salt Lake City Police Department's SWAT team was "serving a high-risk search warrant. SWAT was brought in and the building was surrounded.
As the front door was breached, officers at the rear of the building saw a man, later identified as Lawrence Lute Vigil Jr., attempt to leave through a rear window, but he went back inside.
Vigil returned to the window, holding something in his hand that was described as a black handgun. Vigil raised his hand and pushed out the window screen with the gun in his hand. An officer holding containment at the rear of the building saw Vigil and fired at him, striking him, according to charging documents.
Gill's report further states that Darelli pointed his flashlight at Vigil and ordered him not to move. That's when Vigil pushed the window screen out while holding a gun.
"Detective Darelli immediately fired his rifle two times; the gun fell to the ground, and the male fell back into the apartment," the report states.
"The male comes back with a pistol in his hand and just pushes out the window, holding the gun. And I'm fully exposed. And my fear was that he was gonna engage me or my partner," Darelli told investigators.
Investigators found an empty pistol and no evidence that it had been fired, according to Gill. Nevertheless, Gill concluded that "based upon the evidence before us in this case, we believe when the gun was presented at the window during the warrant service, detective Darelli would have been provided with a reasonable belief that deadly force was necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury."
Vigil was treated at a local hospital and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail about a week later. He was charged in 3rd District Court with assault on an officer and being a restricted person in possession of a gun, second-degree felonies, and obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 6.
