- Four West Jordan police officers were declared legally justified for their involvement in a 2024 police shooting.
- Nicholas Kemp was killed after firing a gun at officers during a dangerous chase.
- The incident began with a domestic violence call and ended in a shootout.
WEST JORDAN — Four West Jordan police officers were legally justified in shooting and killing a man who fired multiple rounds at them a year ago in West Jordan during a dangerous chase that ended in a shootout, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Friday.
On July 5, 2024, Nicholas Kemp, 45, was shot and killed by police officers originally responding to a domestic violence-related call.
The incident began just after 7 p.m. when Kemp's grandmother called police to report that Kemp "had threatened to kill her, had an illegal gun and that he'd been served with a protective order that day," according to Gill's final report.
"He basically tells the grandmother that he's going to come down and kill her, but he's going to go get drunk so he can 'work his nerve up,'" Gill said Friday during a press conference announcing the results of the police shooting investigation.
Kemp, who had been served with a protective order against both his grandmother and mother, had told family members that he would not go back to prison and would not be taken into custody by police.
"When he came out (of prison), he had communicated with his family that he was not going to be going back," the district attorney said, adding that Kemp insisted "that was a confrontation he was going to have and that he would die by 'suicide by cop.'"
Also that night, Kemp's mother received a text message from him. "In essence, it basically says, 'By this protective order you've signed my death warrant,'" Gill said.
An officer drove by the grandmother's residence near 8700 South and 1300 West to look for Kemp and spotted his vehicle as Kemp drove toward the residence. The officer, Trevor Newland, attempted to pull him over.
"As he was ready to make a traffic stop on it, he 'heard loud noises that sounded like gunshots,' observed the driver's 'right hand out of the driver's side window' and observed a 'gray or silver handgun in his right hand that was pointed at me,'" the report states.
A subsequent chase on 1300 West resulted in police performing a PIT maneuver on Kemp's vehicle near 9000 South, temporarily disabling his vehicle.
"I'm just yelling at him to show me his hands. And he looks directly at me in my eyes several times, shakes his head 'no' at me, (and) kind of grimaces. That's at least a couple of times he does that," said West Jordan Police Sgt. Robert Lofgran, who had gotten out of his vehicle and pointed his gun at Kemp.
"Hands out the window, now!" he orders Kemp in body camera video.
Despite multiple officers pointing their guns at him, Kemp resumed driving. Gill said it is important to note that after Kemp was stopped, "None of the officers shoot at that time. Although they've stopped him, they're not seeing him pull the gun out, although he (has already shot at them)."
As the chase resumed, Kemp is seen in dashboard camera videos holding his gun out the window and again shooting at pursuing officers as he continued to drive. At this point, Gill said Lofgran, who is the lead officer in the chase, knows Kemp will not stop and becomes very concerned that something else will happen.
"He knows that somehow he's got to stop him. And that's why he's trying to do multiple PITs, to stop him, because he doesn't want him to get to wherever he's trying to get to. And also because he sees him as an ongoing, imminent threat," Gill said.
In videos, Lofgran is seen hitting the rear panel of Kemp's vehicle two more times with no effect. He is seen steering with his left hand while holding his gun in his right hand.
"Kemp began firing out his window at him, and he returned fire out his front windshield," according to the report.
Near 9500 South and 1300 West, Lofgran is able to successfully PIT Kemp's vehicle a second time. The collision causes Lofgran's patrol vehicle to crash into a soundwall off the road and stops Kemp's vehicle. Kemp immediately gets out and shoots at the other oncoming officers as he runs behind his car. In one of the police videos released Friday, an officer who is still driving toward the scene has his windshield struck by a bullet. The officer was not injured.
Sgt. Adam Julian and officers Newland and Patrick Cullen returned fire. Lofgran, who is standing just 26 feet away from Kemp, moves to Kemp's right side as Kemp is focused on the officers to his left, and fires multiple rounds. He takes cover with the other officers after Kemp goes down.
Kemp was taken to a local hospital, where he died a short time later from his injuries.
The investigation into the shooting determined that the four officers likely fired a total of 55 rounds during the incident. An autopsy determined Kemp had at least eight gunshot wounds.
When Kemp was found on the ground, he had his gun in one hand and a fully loaded magazine in the other. Gill says investigators believe Kemp was trying to reload when he was shot. Four casings were found near where he shot at officers. Inside his vehicle, police found two more spent shell casings, 51 unspent rounds, an empty magazine, a hatchet, a knife, marijuana and an open container of alcohol.
Gill gave kudos to three of the four officers, including Lofgran and Newland, who agreed to be interviewed as part of the investigation.
