NAPLES, Uintah County — A man who shot at a Naples police officer and ran away was found dead after having apparently shot himself.
Police issued a shelter-in-place order after the shooting Monday for residents on the east side of U.S. 40 because of “an active police situation,” but lifted the advisory after the man’s body was found.
Naples police said in a news release the officer was dispatched for a disturbance call Monday morning at 10:21 a.m. While the officer spoke with the man in his 30s on the front lawn of a home, the man pulled out a rifle and fired in the officer’s direction.
Preparing to return fire, the officer took cover as the man ran toward the back of the home in the direction of a ravine, according to Naples police.
The man’s mother told the officer the man believed “someone was out to kill him.”
A Department of Public Safety helicopter provided an aerial view of the man’s location and additional officers and agencies arrived to secure a perimeter around the wooded creek area the man had run toward.
The man was found lying motionless in the creek bottom at about 1:21 p.m and officers discovered he’d died from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound, according to police.
Naples police report that officers took “extra precaution” to avoid provoking a confrontation with the man and that no officers fired shots throughout the incident.
The name of the man won’t be released until family members have been notified, according to Naples police.