A bail bondsman whose attempted arrest of a West Valley man sparked a SWAT standoff that ended with a suicide early Thursday says he and his apprentice did nothing wrong.
"I would not have done anything different," said Keith Lassiter.
Lassiter and William Antico attempted to arrest a bail jumper Thursday wanted on weapons violations. They spotted the man running into his house near 3350 South and 3700 West in West Valley City.
Police were called after the man refused to come out. West Valley officers did not feel they could authorize a search warrant or forcible entry at that time so they left the scene and reportedly advised the bail enforcers to do the same.
Instead, the bondsmen cut a hole in the man's front door, saw him waiting with a rifle and called police again. This time the SWAT team responded. Following a five-hour standoff, the man inside committed suicide.
But Lassiter said under state law regulating bail bondsmen, he was in his right to do what he did.
"We're allowed to use reasonable physical force to make a lawful arrest," he said.
Lassiter said if the West Valley officer had "ordered" him to leave after the first time police were called out, he would have done so. But because the officer, he said, left it up to his own discretion, Lassiter decided he needed to take the fugitive into custody then.
"A confrontation with this defendant probably was inevitable at some point. My thinking was if not today, then tomorrow, if not here then some other location," he said. "The element of surprise was lost. He'd be looking over his shoulder now and we might have had a shootout in the street.
"Defendants do not determine when they go into custody. I have a duty to both my client and the court to enforce the terms and conditions of bail, and if the defendant is in violation of those conditions, then my job is to locate, contact and apprehend," he said.
Lassiter said he was not going to leave just because the fugitive didn't want to answer the door.
"We did not abandon that neighborhood to an armed and crazed man. Confrontation with the defendant was inevitable," he said. "I wanted to bring the case to a resolution."
Lassiter also does not want to said he did not want to criticize the West Valley Police Department, noting that their priorities based on their resources are different than from his. But he also noted claimed that he was always in control of the situation.
"I may wear cowboy boots, but I'm not a cowboy," he said.
West Valley police said they were concerned with the bondsmen's actions.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com