What two West Jordan men are calling police brutality, a Salt Lake County deputy says was a case of self-defense.
Deputy Tim Langley heard a broadcast about a stolen vehicle at 7:20 p.m. Monday. Moments later he saw the champagne-colored Geo Prism westbound on 6200 South.Langley followed the car to a home in Oquirrh Shadows. When the car pulled into the driveway, the deputy turned on his lights and called to the driver of the car, according to a sheriff's report.
As the driver began to walk backward toward Langley, a woman got out of a nearby car and yelled to the deputy that the car was being repossessed, not stolen.
"I advised her to stay back until I could ascertain what was going on," Langley wrote in his report.
Moments later a man came out of the house, Langley wrote, yelling obscenities at him.
The man, later identified as the brother of the driver, walked toward the stolen car and pulled some papers out of the vehicle. Langley said he feared the man was getting a weapon from the car and yelled several times at him to back away from the car and to stop yelling.
But the brother, the owner of the car dealership that was repossessing the car, said he's stopped often by police officers suspicious that the car he's driving might be stolen.
"The first thing we try to do is give them the proper paperwork," he said. "It's something that happens on a regular basis. "
The report states that another man, later identified as the driver's father, came out of the house, also yelling that the deputy was making a mistake. The report details a scene in which a number of people are yelling and arguing with Langley.
Langley writes that he squirted the driver's brother with pepper Mace after the man refused to stop walking toward him waving the papers. The brother says he didn't threaten the officer and that he walked slowly toward him holding the papers out to the deputy.
When the brother got within 6 feet of Langley, the deputy Maced him and then attempted to handcuff him, the report said.
"I'm on my way to an internal affairs meeting this morning," the brother said. "He (the deputy) went completely outside of his bounds."
The driver's father got angry when the deputy Maced his other son and, according to Langley, began running at the deputy. Langley writes that he told the father to get back, but he refused to do so, and so the deputy Maced him. The report says the father turned his head, avoiding most of the spray, and then continued coming at the deputy. Langley said he Maced him again and this time the Mace stopped him.
Throughout the ordeal, Langley wrote, he radioed for help in controlling the situation. The brother and father were arrested for interfering with a police officer and disorderly conduct. After being released Tuesday, they called the sheriff's office to complain about the use of force.
One of the family's neighbors wrote a letter to the Deseret News Tuesday morning supporting the family's actions and asking the sheriff's office to reprimand Langley.
But sheriff's officials say the information they have leads them to believe the deputy acted appropriately.
"The people who escalated the situation were the people coming out of the house," said sheriff's spokesman Jim Potter. "The suspect was cooperating. This is how a lot of police officers across the nation are injured and killed . . . when their attention is split."
"He tried on several occasions to gain the cooperation of the individuals involved," Potter said. "They are legally obligated to follow those instructions. If they don't, they are putting themselves and the officer in danger."
Potter said situations like this could be eliminated if car dealers would notify law enforcement agencies when and where they plan to repossess cars. Dealers are not required by law to notify any law enforcement agency that they are repossessing a car or planning to do so.
No action was taken against the driver because it was a legal repossession.