A Saratoga Springs police officer was legally justified in shooting and killing a Bluffdale man in December, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.
Officer Garrett Carter fired two shots at Daniel Coello Villatoro, 31, killing him on Dec. 10, 2022, after investigators say Villatoro did not comply with officers who were trying to arrest him as part of an assault and child abuse investigation.
All officers first tried to use less deadly methods to stop Villatoro, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Tuesday. Body camera footage from the three officers involved in the incident, along with a recording from Villatoro's front door camera, shows that the altercation occurred in a tight hallway where Villatoro posed an immediate threat to the officers, and that they had reason to believe he may have a gun, Gill said.
At 11:45 a.m. that day, three Saratoga Springs police officers responded to a report of an aggravated assault at the Beacon Hill Apartment complex, 15130 S. Beacon Point Lane in Bluffdale. Saratoga Springs police also provide police service to Bluffdale. Easton Lyons, 17, told officers that his neighbor, Villatoro, had physically assaulted and choked him until he lost consciousness. Marks were visible on Easton's neck, police said.
Villatoro left but came back to the complex an hour later, after which the officers returned, Gill said. Body camera footage shows the officers confronting Villatoro in the parking lot, telling him he was under arrest for assault, which Villatoro denied having done. The footage shows officers asking Villatoro to get on the ground, but he refuses to comply.
Officers in the video follow Villatoro as he runs to his apartment, but all officers stay in the hallway outside the doorway, and Carter uses a Taser to try to stop Villatoro. Tasers take five seconds to recharge, according to Gill's report. As Villatoro ran into his apartment, Carter tried to deploy the Taser a second time to drive-stun Villatoro instead, at which point he somehow lost control of the Taser and it fell into the apartment, the report states.
Carter stepped back and retrieved his handgun while the other two officers deployed their Tasers on Villatoro, according to the report. Villatoro then charged at the police officers, holding a small black object that appeared to be a gun but was later identified as Carter's Taser, Gill said.
Villatoro tried to use Carter's Taser on the officers, the report says. Carter fired twice at him, and another officer tried to drive-stun him. The body camera footage shows Villatoro collapsing. The third officer ran to get first aid supplies, but Villatoro was declared dead at the scene, the report states.
Carter refused to provide a statement or be interviewed about the shooting death, according to the report.