WASATCH COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — A sheriff’s deputy in Utah fatally shot a man early Thursday morning after he allegedly approached the officer carrying a large object.
The Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office said the shooting happened following a chase that started around 12:30 a.m. in the Kamas area in nearby Summit County, in the mountain roughly 50 miles east of Salt Lake City.
A deputy there had tried to pull the man over, as there was an active warrant out for his arrest for violating his probation in connection to a 2018 conviction for felony mischief.
The deputy also alerted their counterparts in Wasatch County, who had been actively searching for the man for weeks in the hope of serving him an eviction notice, the sheriff’s office said.
When the man evaded the traffic stop in Summit County, he sped south toward the Wasatch County line, where he crashed on Bench Creek Road.
“Following the collision, the driver exited the vehicle and advanced toward the deputy wielding a large blunt object,” the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Officials did not disclose what the object was.
In response, the deputy shot the man, the sheriff’s office said. He died at the scene, despite the deputy’s attempts to aid him.
The deputy was not harmed and was placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure following a police shooting.
A multi-agency critical incident investigation team, led by the Utah Attorney General’s Office, is investigating. The man’s name has not been released.
The sheriff’s office said the man’s 2018 conviction stemmed from an incident where he damaged a power supply to vital communication infrastructure serving parts of both Wasatch and Summit counties.
Wasatch County deputies had tried for weeks to serve him an eviction notice outside his home, as they wanted to reduce the chance of “confrontation and harm,” the sheriff’s office said.
This incident was the first of two police shootings to happen Thursday on the Wasatch Front. The other occurred in Sandy, where a police officer shot and wounded a man following a chase.
