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Roosevelt police kill gunman

utbagpiper

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UPDATE: Deceased died from shotgun wound to back

KSL has posted an article with some updated information.

Full article at link above (no registration needed to read). Excerpts below:

KSL said:
An armed man who was shot and killed by a Roosevelt police lieutenant died from a shotgun wound to the back, according to his death certificate.

...

Norton, 36, died at Uintah Basin Medical Center on May 3, about 30 minutes after he was shot by Roosevelt Police Lt. Pete Butcher. The shooting ended a standoff that started when police received reports of an armed man who was acting erratically near the hospital, according to investigators.

Officers said they found Norton carrying a loaded handgun in a wooded area that borders a residential neighborhood east of the hospital. They negotiated with him for nearly an hour, then tried to subdue him with a Taser and special "less-lethal" shotgun rounds before he was fatally shot, investigators said.

...

The State Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting the probe of the incident, has confirmed there is body camera video of the shooting, including footage of the shooting itself. Capt. Tyler Kotter, the unit's commander, declined to say whether the video provides an explanation for Butcher's decision to use deadly force.

The rest of the article deals primarily with the news media's request to release the video and the State agency declining to do so; along with explanation about which prosecutor is conducting the investigation to determine whether the shooting was legally justified due to various conflict of interest issues in at least one office.

Charles
 

deepdiver

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KSL has posted an article with some updated information.

Full article at link above (no registration needed to read). Excerpts below:



The rest of the article deals primarily with the news media's request to release the video and the State agency declining to do so; along with explanation about which prosecutor is conducting the investigation to determine whether the shooting was legally justified due to various conflict of interest issues in at least one office.

Charles
The update, for me, muddies things more than clarifies. Now I am more curious about the final events and would very much like to know about Butcher's decision to use deadly force.
 

OC for ME

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White Oak Plantation
Officers said they found Norton carrying a loaded handgun in a wooded area that borders a residential neighborhood east of the hospital. They negotiated with him for nearly an hour, then tried to subdue him with a Taser and special "less-lethal" shotgun rounds before he was fatally shot, investigators said.
Yet, the perp did not return fire...hmm.
 

utbagpiper

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Utah
This case gets more interesting. An article today reveals that the officer who fired the fatal shot, has been heavily criticized by the Judge in an unrelated case for misleading the courts in obtaining an arrest warrant, failing to fully advise a suspect of his Miranda rights, and of using various coercive and deceitful interrogation tactics to obtain "confessions".

Since that court ruling is not directly on topic to this thread nor even the forum, I've posted it over in the social lounge at http://forum.opencarry.org/forums/s...e-investigation-tactics&p=2149250#post2149250 .

But maybe of interest to some following this shooting case.

Charles
 

utbagpiper

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Utah
Officially ruled justified

The latest media report indicates the shooting has been ruling justified.

However, I'm now deeply troubled by this incident.

1-While every gun is dangerous, a .22 caliber "derringer" (or perhaps NAA mini-revolver) has very limited useful range.

2-I tire of hearing of suicidal incidents ending in "suicide by cop", especially when remote enough the person poses a danger really only to himself and to those who are trying to intervene.

3-Most importantly, a person ought well to KNOW what rounds he has loaded if he is going to use "less lethal" loads.

The full article is on the KSL website from a few days ago.

Excerpts:

KSL said:
...
"Based on the totality of the circumstances, Lt. (Pete) Butcher did/could have had a reasonable belief that he or others were at risk to be killed or seriously injured by Mr. (Kevin) Norton," deputy Utah County attorney Mariane O'Bryant wrote Wednesday in a letter to Roosevelt Police Chief Rick Harrison. "Therefore, the state declines to file charges against Lt. Butcher."

...

The officers said they found Kevin Norton — the target of their search — in a wooded area that borders a residential neighborhood near the hospital. He had a .22-caliber derringer, investigators said.

"Officers spoke with Mr. Norton in an effort to de-escalate the situation and obtain the gun, which Mr. Norton repeatedly placed under his chin in a firing stance, then waved toward the officers who surrounded him," O'Bryant wrote in her letter to Harrison.

After the incident, investigators found a live round in the gun and a spent shell casing from a bullet that "had been fired sometime prior to (the May 3) incident based on the difficulty in removing it from the gun," the prosecutor's letter states.

...

[Police Lt.] Butcher asked [Police Chief] Harrison whether he should retrieve a shotgun and some less-lethal "bean bag" rounds from his patrol vehicle in case force was necessary, O'Bryant wrote. The chief approved the request.

Butcher grabbed the shotgun and three of the less-lethal rounds, the letter states. He was only able to load two of the rounds, though, "without racking the shotgun, which action Lt. Butcher believed might antagonize Mr. Norton further," O'Bryant wrote.

The shotgun in Butcher's hands was now loaded with two bean bag rounds and four "live rounds" as he returned to the wooded area, the prosecutor said.

...

[A taser was deployed without apparent affect.]

Butcher then fired the first bean bag round as another officer fired a Taser at Norton, O'Bryant wrote. "Neither the bean bag round nor the Taser appeared to be effective," she wrote.

"Mr. Norton continued to hold onto the gun and appeared to be attempting to regain his footing," the prosecutor wrote. "Lt. Butcher fired another bean bag round. Mr. Norton came back up to his knees, facing officers to the other side of Lt. Butcher."

Norton was still holding his gun "despite continual orders" to drop it, O'Bryant wrote, noting that this was when Butcher fired a "live round" into Norton's back, fatally wounding him.

"At the time he fired the third shot, Lt. Butcher believed that the shot was another bean bag round, rather than a live round," O'Bryant wrote, pointing out that the use-of-force analysis for lethal and less-lethal actions is the same because "less -lethal actions present a risk of death, although to a lesser degree than live rounds."

Charles
 
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