An incident involving guns, harsh words, a Sandy City police officer and a Salt Lake County security guard is being investigated by the Salt Lake County sheriff's department.
According to county sheriff's reports, Sandy Det. Ron Larsen, 32, approached a county landfill at 1800 South 5600 West on a Sunday afternoon to dump some garbage. From there the stories differ as to what happened.After getting out of his vehicle, Larsen, who was not in uniform, said a security guard approached him and told him with a high, rude tone that the dump was closed.
Larsen said he wanted to ask if any other landfills were open, but the guard turned around and stomped back into a building. The Sandy detective said he began driving away, then decided he didn't like what happened, and returned to try to talk to the guard. This time Larsen said the guard, Kim Hansen, came out of a building holding an M-14 rifle, yelling at him to get off the property.
Larsen said he then showed Hansen his Sandy City police officer identification, and Hansen put the gun down. Larsen then got Hansen's name and identification before leaving to call the county sheriff's office because he was upset over the experience.
Hansen's version of the story is that when Larsen first arrived, he told Larsen the dump would be open at 7 the next morning. However, Larsen became upset he couldn't dump his trash and told the guard he had a "special problem," Hansen told police. Hansen said he asked Larsen to leave four different times before Larsen finally walked away.
Hansen said Larsen walked to his truck, put something in his pocket and came back. Hansen then put an M-14 rifle over his shoulder, hoping this would stop Larsen from approaching further. Hansen said that at this time Larsen pulled out a gun, drew on him and told him to drop the rifle, pulling out a police badge at the same time. Hansen put the M-14 down and then gave Larsen his name and identification.
Sheriff's Det. Dennis Couch, who is investigating the case, said the whole thing is being blown way out of proportion. "It's just whoever's story you want to believe."