SALT LAKE CITY — West Jordan police officer Ian Adams says if and when it happens, "It's going to be the worst day of their career, for sure."
Others like Susan Hunt see it as a day when a loved one is taken from them.
Adams, who is also the spokesman for the Utah Fraternal Order of Police, and Hunt, the mother of 22-year-old Darrien Hunt, are talking about officer-involved shootings.
In Utah, there were 14 fatal officer-involved shootings during 2014 — a number that more than doubled from 2013 when officers shot and killed six people. An additional seven men were shot and wounded by Utah police during 2014.
All 14 victims were men with an average age of 31. Nine of them were armed with a gun and four of those fired their weapons at officers. One had a knife, one had a sword, another a pen. One victim was unarmed. Police have not yet indicated whether the victim in one of the shootings had a weapon. Investigators have determined that all of the shootings were legally justified, with the exception of three that are still being reviewed.
Darrien Hunt was one of those 14. He was shot and killed Sept. 22 when he ran from two Saratoga Springs officers who had confronted him about a samurai-style sword he was carrying. His parents filed a $2 million wrongful death lawsuit Friday against the two officers who shot him.
"We're trying to prove that someone used excessive force — unlawful deadly force — and took Darrien's life. And I think that's what this complaint shows, evidence that unlawful force was used. There was no need to use deadly force under any scenario," Hunt family attorney Robert Sykes said Friday.
Hunt said her family is still struggling to cope with their loss, but her son KJ, who is black, is particularly having a hard time understanding his brother's death.
"'If it would have been me, I would have been in jail. How is it that two officers don't have to abide by what I have to abide by?'" Hunt said her son asked her. "It's just not right, and it's not fair and it's not just in any way, shape or form."
The issue of officer-involved shootings has became a hot button topic both in Utah and across the country. Many have expressed concerns that police officers are abusing their power and are often too quick to pull the trigger, particularly when minorities are the subjects of investigations.
In small but frequent demonstrations along the Wasatch Front, protestors decrying police violence invoke the names of Darrien Hunt and other Utahns shot and killed by police alongside those of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, whose deaths in Missouri and New York City respectively have sparked national outrage.
Some of that unrest has purportedly sparked unprovoked, fatal attacks on police officers, including the deaths of two New York City officers last month as they sat in their patrol car.
On one side of the issue, police say there wouldn't be a problem if people would follow officers' commands and respect police authority. Others counter that not following basic commands to "stop" shouldn't warrant being shot and/or killed.
Although police officers undergo constant firearms training, most hope to go through their entire careers without ever having to fire a shot, Adams said.
"I promise, nobody wakes up in the morning wanting to be involved in a shooting."
When an officer-involved shooting does occur, Adams says an officer's life is turned upside down.
"Your life is about to get a great deal of scrutiny both internally from your own department and externally from investigators. You're going to have friends and family who are suddenly going to look at you kind of differently because before, taking a life or potentially taking a life was just a theory, and now it's suddenly a big reality," he said.
Adams speaks from personal experience. Just six months ago, he shot a man while on duty.
Timothy James Peterson, who investigators say had made online threats to shoot officers, ignored Adams' commands when he came in contact with him and ran. As Peterson was fleeing, he made several motions as if he were going to pull a weapon out of his waistband. Police later determined that he was carrying a piece of metal that a friend said Peterson had bent into the shape of a firearm.
Adams fired 10 times while running, hitting Peterson twice in the leg and buttocks. He survived. The incident was captured on Adams' body-camera. The shooting was ruled justified by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.
After paramedics arrived that day and Adams could step back and begin collecting his thoughts, he said the first thoughts that went through his mind were of his wife and whether she had heard the gunshots. Adams lives close to where the shooting occurred. His first phone call was to her.
Then came a feeling of disbelief, "that somebody put me in a position where they wanted to take my life."
An officer can go through their entire 20-year career "de-escalating" every volatile situation they come across without resorting to gunfire, Adams said. "Then there's that one day, that one moment, that one call that can seriously turn your life upside down."
While the number of officer-involved shootings significantly increased in 2014, Adams said such shootings are still rare. He believes that some media reports create a public perception that they are more common than they actually are.
Moving forward, Adams would like to see police departments do a better job communicating with the public when an officer-involved shooting occurs. Media reports at the time of his shooting show that West Jordan police released very little information to the public about it, saying only that an officer "came upon a circumstance" and that "shots were fired" and "weapons were found."
"We as a profession can do a better job communicating about these events. I think sometimes we get stuck in an older mindset that doesn't take into account social media and Twitter and how people process information these days. But, for the most part, I take a lot of heart from the fact we still have a huge amount of community support in Utah, where we work," he said.
Adams would also like to see police departments keep more detailed records of the types of resistance officers encounter from the people they arrest.
Here's a synopsis of the 14 fatal officer-involved shootings in Utah during 2014.
1. NEPHI, Jan. 30 — Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui, 27, who killed Sgt. Cory Wride and later shot deputy Greg Sherwood during a crime spree, died the next day from injuries he sustained in a shootout with deputies. Wride had encountered Garcia-Juaregui and his then 17-year-old girlfriend, Meagan Dakota Grunwald, pulled over on the side of the road in Eagle Mountain. Garcia-Juaregui shot Wride through the rear window after Wride returned to his police vehicle. The two then fled. When their truck crashed in Nephi, police say they carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint from a mother and her child and continued south on I-15. The car hit a spike strip and crashed into an oncoming minivan, which Garcia-Juaregui jumped out and ran toward. Four Juab County sheriff’s deputies warned the driver of the minivan to drive away and charged at Garcia-Juaregui. Deputies Craig Ryan, Rod Thompson, Kellen Worwood and Al Taylor, armed with three AR-15 rifles and a shotgun, fired a total of seven shots. One of the rounds struck Garcia-Juaregui in the head. The deputies’ actions were called courageous, heroic and legally justified in protecting others.
2. SALT LAKE CITY, March 28 — Christopher Leo Knight, 34, of California was shot and killed after he unexpectedly opened fire on two Salt Lake police officers during a traffic stop in front of the vacant Zephyr Club, 301 S. West Temple. Officer Moelealaolao Tifisi, 40, was hit once in the shoulder and officer Dan Tueller, 33, was hit once in the upper thigh. The shooting was ruled legally justified.
3. CENTERVILLE, April 14 — Police say Vincent Farrand, 39, had been fighting with his wife because he believed a mutual friend had made an inappropriate advance toward her. After the woman exited the home, 550 S. 300 East, officers confronted Farrand, who came out of the house holding a gun with his finger on the trigger and pointed the weapon at the officers, according to police. Centerville police officer Jason Read shot Farrand, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting was determined to be legally justified.
4. SALT LAKE CITY, April 21 — Siale Maveni Angilau, aka "C-Down," died after he was shot multiple times in the chest by a deputy U.S. marshal when he reportedly grabbed a pen and lunged at a witness who was testifying at the federal courthouse, 351 S. West Temple. Angilau, 25, was the last of 16 fellow Tongan Crip Gang members to be tried in court under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act on charges including racketeering, robbery, assault on a federal officer and others. The marshal, who fired four shots that all hit Angilau, was cleared by FBI investigators, but the agents refused to identify him.
5. WEST HAVEN, June 4 — Kristopher Chase Simmons, 35, was shot and killed by two Ogden SWAT officers after nearly four hours of negotiations broke down and Simmons pointed a gun at them, police said. Weber County sheriff's deputies and Ogden police officers approached Simmons at a West Haven auto body shop near 1965 S. 1100 West and attempted to arrest him on warrants for evading police and drug possession. Simmons reportedly ran from police and barricaded himself in a car inside the auto body shop. Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said he was awaiting additional details from the medical examiner and had not released a determination on whether the shooting was justified. However, he said he gave a "verbal clearance" to the officers involved.
6. MILLCREEK, July 25 — Officers responding to a domestic dispute found a woman outside who told them that Nicholas Lister, 31, was in the home, 360 E. Woodlake Cove (4055 South), with firearms. After police determined that the domestic issue was verbal and not criminal in nature, they decided to try to de-escalate the situation. Lister threatened to come out with a gun. Despite repeated requests that he not come out, he stepped onto his apartment balcony with a shotgun in hand and fired at least one shot at officers, who returned fire, killing him. Police found Lister was armed with both a shotgun and another handgun. Unified police officers Gary Evans and Shane Franchow fired a combined 25 shots. Their actions were determined to be legally justified.
7. SOUTH SALT LAKE, Aug. 11 — Officers shot Dillon Taylor, 20, outside a 7-Eleven, 2102 S. State, after he walked away from officers who ordered him to stop and he refused to take his hands out of his waistband. Taylor told the officers, “no, fool,” then suddenly lifted his shirt. Salt Lake police officer Bron Cruz, who said he fully believed Taylor had a gun and was moving to shoot, fired. Taylor was unarmed. The shooting was captured on the officers’ body cameras, which helped investigators determine that the shooting was justified.
8. OGDEN, Sept. 9 — Christopher James Roskelley, 38, was shot and killed by police in the front yard of his house at 147 N. Harrison Blvd. "Multiple officers" were on standard paid administrative leave pending an investigation. Ogden police have released few details, but indicated he was armed. Neighbors, however, reported hearing as many as seven gunshots after officers swarmed the white car in the driveway as Roskelley apparently returned to the house. Police had been looking for Roskelley because he was suspected of being involved in a shooting days before near 851 24th St. In that incident, a 35-year-old man was shot multiple times by another man who drove off in a white sedan. The Weber County Attorney's Office has not yet announced whether the shooting was justified.
9. SARATOGA SPRINGS, Sept. 10 — Darrien Nathaniel Hunt, 22, of Saratoga Springs, was shot and killed when police were called on a report of a "suspicious person." Hunt had been walking around businesses in that area carrying a sheathed samurai sword. Saratoga Springs Police Cpl. Matt Schauerhamer and officer Nicholas Judson fired seven shots after they say Hunt “swung or swiped” the sword at them and took off running with it. Schauerhamer fired four of the shots as Hunt ran away. Six bullets hit Hunt from behind but a seventh shot missed him. Investigators determined the officers’ actions were legally justified because Hunt was “immediately accessible” to other people in the area and could have potentially hurt someone. Family members filed a civil lawsuit against the two officers on Friday, arguing that Hunt had done nothing illegal and shooting him was unnecessary. Family members say Hunt, who was black, would not have been shot if he were white. The officers strongly deny that accusation.
10. St. GEORGE, Sept. 11 — Benjamin J. Schroff, 37, was shot and killed after robbing a bank and taking two hostages. After getting the money, police say Schroff forced two female bank employees into one the women's cars and ordered her to drive as he fired shots with both weapons at pursuing officers. Schroff later got out of the car near 1575 S. Heritage Field Drive in Washington City and ran into a field along the Virgin River where police formed a perimeter and encountered Schroff with the shotgun in his hands and "taking a shooting position toward police officers," according to investigators. He was armed with a handgun and a shotgun and wore a bulletproof vest. The actions of St. George Police Sgt. Richard Triplett and officer Jarab Daniel was determined to be legally justified. An autopsy indicated Schroff was hit by almost 30 rounds.
11. ROY, Oct. 21 — Jose Calzada, 35, was shot during a confrontation with a SWAT team. He contacted a suicide hotline and officers were dispatched to 3779 S. 5300 South. Police tried for several hours to negotiate with Calzada, but he was eventually killed in what police referred to as a “suicide by cop” incident. Others who had been in the home left before the shooting. Investigators have released few details about the shooting, nor said why a SWAT team was dispatched, what prompted the shooting by multiple officers, or whether he was armed. The Weber County Attorney's Office has not yet announced whether it believes the shooting was justified.
12. MAGNA, Oct. 25 — Luis Quintana, 39, of Magna, was shot four times by Unified police officer Martin Berdaguer. Police were originally called to the house, 3688 S. Deer Valley Drive (8445 West), on a report that Quintana was attempting suicide with a knife. When the officer found Quintana in the street covered with blood, the man ignored commands to put the knife down and then charged at Berdaguer, the weapon still in his hand. Quintana had a "significant history" of similar emotional incidents with police, according to investigators. The shooting was determined to be legally justified.
13. SOUTH JORDAN, Nov. 22 — Ty Worthington, 26, was shot and killed after officers responded to a trespassing call at his parents’ South Jordan home. Officers had taken Worthington from the same home the day before following a drug overdose. When officers first arrived at 11370 S. Brook-N-Lance Lane, Worthington was gone. Officers searched the area, and about an hour later, South Jordan Police Sgt. Larimie Lancaster located him in a horse corral north of the home. Worthington ran behind a parked boat and refused instructions to come out. Lancaster then edged around the boat and saw Worthington raising a Ruger .22-caliber revolver and the officer fired. The two exchanged gunfire and Worthington was struck by three of the 13 rounds. He fired two at Lancaster. Worthington was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting was ruled legally justified. Laramie was wearing a body camera but didn’t activate it.
14. STANSBURY PARK, Tooele County, Dec. 28 — An armed military recruiter, Nicholas McGehee, 28, was shot and killed at his home, 34 Marion Drive, after a Tooele County sheriff's sergeant and a Utah Highway Patrol trooper arrived at the house on a report that McGehee had severely cut his foot. The officers witnessed McGehee and his wife fighting inside and saw that McGehee had a shotgun. They escorted the wife to a safe area after she stepped out of the home. As they were doing so, McGehee came to the front door carrying the shotgun, then went back inside and returned with a handgun, which he pointed at the deputy despite instructions to put the weapon down, police said. As McGehee raised the gun, the sergeant shot him. Investigators at the scene said alcohol may have played a role in the incident. The shooting is under investigation.
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