CRIME, POLICE + COURTS
Salt Lake man killed in Magna police shooting
Apr 17, 2018, 7:10 AM | Updated: 2:53 pm
MAGNA — A 41-year-old Salt Lake City man was shot and killed by police after leading officers on a chase in the western Salt Lake Valley on Tuesday morning.
Police received a call about 3 a.m. Tuesday from an “agitated” man who had taken a woman hostage and instructed dispatchers to “tell our officers to back off, or I will shove this knife through her throat,” according to Unified police.
The man, identified by police as Lonnie Marcel Bowen, also asked to speak to a hostage negotiator. Valley Emergency Communications Center dispatchers transferred him to the Unified Police Department.
Officers were dispatched to the area of 3700 South and 900 East, where the phone call had originated, police said. Officers did not notice anything out of the ordinary, other than a truck leaving the area, Unified Police Lt. Brian Lohrke said.
Officers were able to get the license plate number of the truck before it left, Lohrke said.
About 4 a.m., Unified police learned that West Valley police was in pursuit of the same truck. The chase began near 5600 West and 3100 South, continued west through West Valley and ito Magna, police said.
Police deployed tire spikes during the pursuit, and the truck eventually acme to a stop at 2750 West and 3100 South. A Unified police officer approached the vehicle and fired at the man inside the truck, Lohrke said. Bowen died at the scene, police said.
The Salt Lake City Police Department is investigating the shooting.
A witness told KSL Newsradio up to three gunshots were heard about 4:30 a.m. A man was shot and killed inside a truck, the witness said, and a woman who got out of the truck during the shooting was taken to a hospital. She did not appear to have any injuries.
This is the fourth officer-involved shooting in Utah in less than 30 days. On March 20, a Granite Schools officer opened fire after a driver struck him with a vehicle in West Valley City. On April 8, West Valley police shot a fleeing theft suspect who broke into two homes, one of them with children inside. On April 9, deputies in Utah County shot a driver who ran over a deputy’s foot. All of those events remain under investigation by outside law enforcement agencies.
Contributing: Jared Page and Becky Bruce
