The man arrested for shooting a rookie Salt Lake police officer was formally charged Friday with two counts of attempted aggravated murder, a first-degree felony. He is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail on $1 million cash-only bail.
Investigators said Donald S. Trujillo, 22, was an arm's-length distance from officer Travis Morgan when he shot him in the face April 7.Morgan, 28, had been on the job only two weeks and was being trained by a senior officer the morning he was shot. He was recovering last week from surgery to repair injuries to his mouth and face.
Charges filed in 3rd District Court state Trujillo was attempting to outrun police after crashing a stolen Jeep as he fled the scene of a home burglary.
Police officers caught up with Trujillo after a resident tackled the defendant. During the struggle with police, Trujillo allegedly took out a gun and shot Morgan, the charges state.
Trujillo then attempted to shoot Salt Lake police officer Walter Dobrowolski, who said Trujillo pointed a handgun at him and squeezed the trigger several times, but the gun did not fire.
In addition to the two counts of attempted murder, Trujillo was charged with aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony; receiving a stolen vehicle, a second-degree felony; tampering with evidence, a second-degree felony; failure to respond to an officer's signal to stop, a third-degree felony; and theft, a class B misdemeanor.
If convicted, he could face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a $10,000 fine for each of the first-degree felony offenses.