Cops in Utah Are Responsible for 15% of All Homicides in the State

[714562]

http://www.vocativ.com/underworld/crime/police-shooitings-utah/

Police in Utah have killed more people in the last five years than gang members, drug dealers or child abusers have in the state—yet county prosecutors have deemed all but one of those fatal police shootings justified, according to an explosive new report.

The startling findings, revealed Sunday by the Salt Lake City Tribune, come as a nation anxiously awaits the grand jury verdict in the controversial death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. At the same time, several police-involved killings in Utah, which took place under questionable circumstances, continue to leave people outraged and demanding greater accountability.

Compiling media reports, crime statistics, and medical-examiner and court records, The Tribune reviewed nearly 300 homicides between January 2010 and October 2014. The paper found that law enforcement officers killed 45 people, a whopping 15 percent of all homicides during that period. The use of deadly force by police is the second most common way Utahns kill one another, topped only by intimate partner violence.

Yet despite a potentially alarming public safety crisis, nearly every fatal police shooting has been ruled defensible. Only one—the 2012 shooting of Danielle Willard by West Valley City police—was deemed unjustified. However, a judge threw out the criminal case against the officer last month.

This year alone, cops in Utah have already killed 13 people. At least three of them remain clouded in controversy.

“The numbers reflect that there could be an issue, and it’s going to take a deeper understanding of these shootings,” Chris Gebhardt, a former police lieutenant and 15-year law enforcement veteran, told the Tribune. “It definitely can’t be written off as citizen groups being upset with law enforcement.”

On Aug. 11, just two days after Michael Brown’s death, cops in Salt Lake City shot and killed Dillon Taylor in broad daylight outside a 7-Eleven, prompting weeks of protests by friends, family and activists. The 20-year-old was unarmed, but police claimed he had acted “noncompliant” and appeared to be pulling a gun out of his pants.

A body-cam video of the shooting shows that Taylor, whose friends at the scene say he was wearing a pair of earbuds, turned to the officers with his hands in his pants and hoisted up his shirt. The Salt Lake City County District Attorney later ruled the killing justified.

Less than a month after Taylor’s death, police in Saratoga Springs shot 22-year-old Darrien Hunt, who was black, six times from behind. Hunt had been walking around with a fake samurai sword and had allegedly lunged at the officers who confronted him. An autopsy report showed he had no drugs in his system. Prosecutors also ruled that fatal shooting to be justified.

Finally, a SWAT team in the town of Roy shot and killed Jose Calzada after the 35-year-old called a suicide hotline number in October. While few details have emerged, police are investigating the death as a suicide-by-cop.

 

[wheywhey]

I lived in Salt Lake City for a year and there were two killings by cop that I remember.

The first guy was threatening people with a gun at an apartment complex. The second guy was an apparent suicide by cop. He was caught stealing beer at a grocery store and was uncooperative with store employees. When the police came, he pulled out a gun and got shot. First, Utah sells near-beer so it is hardly worth stealing. Second, his cousin said that the guy didn't drink.

Also, my apartment was required by law to bill me $10 each month for "police".

 

[KingpinOG]

That stat is more of a result of the fact the Utah has a very low murder rate.

 

[Regular_P]

Jesus, you should have linked the video of the cop murdering that poor kid since he was wearing a cam and STILL got off. Chilling.

 

[88m3]

I lived in Salt Lake City for a year and there were two killings by cop that I remember.

The first guy was threatening people with a gun at an apartment complex. The second guy was an apparent suicide by cop. He was caught stealing beer at a grocery store and was uncooperative with store employees. When the police came, he pulled out a gun and got shot. First, Utah sells near-beer so it is hardly worth stealing. Second, his cousin said that the guy didn't drink.

Also, my apartment was required by law to bill me $10 each month for "police".

Didn't know brehs could become clergy...

What's up with that law?

 

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

These cops are murderers....

 

[wheywhey]

Here's one from last week:

"Absolutely incomprehensible."

Those were the words James Dudley Barker’s longtime friend used to describe allegations that Barker used a shovel to attack a Salt Lake City police officer with bone-breaking force before the officer shot Barker to death in a yard just one block from Barker’s home.

"James was an incredibly peaceful person," said Summer Osburn, who became friends with Barker 20 years ago while they were students at Brigham Young University.

Several friends and neighbors of Barker, 42, gathered Friday at his home in the Avenues, where Barker had lived for several years and was known as an artistic nature-lover, musician and surfer, who volunteered at community arts events and quit his church basketball team because it was "too violent."

"He was one of [Jack] Kerouac’s bright, burning roman candles," Osburn said.

Barker’s girlfriend said she had asked Barker to break up ice that had packed around a bus stop on the shaded north side of their home on Thursday afternoon. He evidently took the snow shovel and began walking through the neighborhood, near I Street and 2nd and 3rd avenues.

A neighbor called 911 about 3:30 p.m. to report a suspicious man was carrying a shovel and knocking on doors to seek work shoveling snow. The caller reportedly noted how little snow was on the ground, although icy patches remained on shaded sidewalks on Friday. The caller also said Barker matched the description of someone who on Wednesday was peering into car windows in the neighborhood, police said.

When the officer approached Barker on the porch of another house, a "verbal altercation" began, police said. Barker allegedly attacked the officer with the shovel, striking his arm and leg before the officer fired several times, police said.

The officer, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital to treat fractures to his arm and foot. The officer was recovering at home on Friday. Police would not discuss how many shots were fired, how many struck Barker or where on his body he was wounded.

Detective Dennis McGowan confirmed the injured officer was equipped with a body camera, and that it was turned on at the time of the attack.

But police said the camera quit working at some point due to the violence of the attack.

The footage, released by police Friday night, shows Barker and the officer talking before Barker begins shouting and suddenly swings the shovel at the officer, which is when the footage ends.

The officer had told Barker that neighbors were suspicious of him. Police also claim Barker matched the description of someone who had been looking into cars the day before.

Richard Grow, who lives in the northwest corner of the Avenues, witnessed the final moments of the struggle between the officer and Barker.

Grow, 66, was driving south on I Street when, as he approached 2nd Avenue, he saw the two men leap off a front porch, one after the other. He said he is not sure if the officer was the first one off the porch or not; he initially thought they were two roommates fighting, and only later realized that one was a policeman.

By the time Grow pulled up, stopping his car about 40 feet from the fight, the two men were wrestling on the ground in front of the house.

"They wrestled on the ground for 10 to 15 seconds," Grow said. Then he saw the officer "reach around his side and pull out his gun and hold it up to the guy’s chest and, bam, bam, bam ... Point blank against this man’s chest."

Grow got out and asked the officer, who Grow thought looked haggard, if he needed any help.

 

[88m3]

DA's were responsible for 100% of them walking

 

[Type Username Here]

DA's were responsible for 100% of them walking

Very true.

 

[FaTaL]

DA's were responsible for 100% of them walking

da's and cops walk hand in hand

 

[Regular_P]

I still can't believe the cop who shot Dillon Taylor got off.

 

[tmonster]

 

[tmonster]

Someone send those numbers to common and ask him if he is those people

 

[hashmander]

Here's one from last week:

damn, that cop was pretty damn respectful, haven't had the pleasure of encountering one like that. at James Dudley Barker’s friend talking about he's a peaceful guy.

 

[KingTut]

damn, that cop was pretty damn respectful, haven't had the pleasure of encountering one like that. at James Dudley Barker’s friend talking about he's a peaceful guy.

Dude fukkin snapped. "YOU KEEP GETTING IN MY FACE!"