Utah County team reviews deadly police shooting near Erda in Tooele County

SALT LAKE CITY— As a Utah County critical incident team reviewed a deadly police shooting Wednesday near Erda in Tooele County, a retired police officer said multiple factors would have likely been considered by officers before they opened fire.

According to investigators on Wednesday, Pleasant Grove police were following a wanted fugitive allegedly with an active warrant for a parole violation when officers requested assistance from other agencies.

During an attempted traffic stop, Tooele County Sheriff's Sgt. Dane Lerdahl said the driver did not stop, and a short pursuit ended in the driver side-swiping a semi-truck and then rolling.

Witness video shared with KSL showed the driver getting out of his white truck and then appearing to yell at officers while stepping toward them and pointing an object in their direction.

It was unclear whether the object was a weapon, and police on Wednesday did not say whether the fugitive was armed or what the nature of the alleged offense was that was considered a parole violation.

A Utah County Sheriff's spokesman said Thursday afternoon that while a Utah County police shooting critical incident team was investigating, he didn't expect to release any further information at that time due to the active investigation.

Former deputy police chief Chris Bertram said he saw some actions in the video that would have been considered "concerning."

"That is, an individual gets out of the vehicle and appears to point something at the police officers," Bertram said. "The video is not great. It appears that it could be some type of a firearm. It may not be, but it appears to be a firearm, and the police officers fire their guns at that."

Police on Wednesday said six officers from multiple agencies were placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

Bertram said not only would officers have likely factored the immediate actions of the fugitive in the decision to use deadly force, but they also would have factored what they knew about the person prior to that.

He said he believed it was noteworthy that Pleasant Grove police made the choice to attempt to apprehend the fugitive far from city limits.

"All of those things that we would know about the individual, that we know about his criminal history, that we know about his background, that we know about the circumstances going on right in that moment are hopefully going to go into the totality of this individual gets out, and, again, through blurry video, it appears he is taking some type of action, getting himself into some type of position, that he may have a weapon or does have a weapon, and as a result, an officer-involved shooting occurs," Bertram said.

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