(Photo: KSL TV)
SOUTH SALT LAKE – The Salt Lake County District Attorney is responding to his critics that say he takes a long time to determine if an officer-involved shooting is justified or not. Because of this week’s shooting, there are 15 police officers all over the county that aren’t able to patrol the streets.
Sim Gill tells KSL he has not officially received the evidence that is being gathered by officers from the shooting that killed Harold Robinson in South Salt Lake. Even if he were to get the case tomorrow, he would not be able to estimate how long it would take to make a decision.
“The volume of the crime scene, here, is unique. I’ve never seen anything like that in my experience,” Gill says.
He acknowledges he still is looking into past cases from 2018. In a normal year, his office investigates an average of six officer-involved critical incidents. However, last year, the caseload skyrocketed.
“Last year, we had a record year of 21 officer-involved critical incidents,” Gill says.
He also say the last thing he wants to do is rush his decision. That way, it can’t be questioned later.
However, any decision about when an officer can return to work is not up to him. Gill says that is strictly up to each individual police department and the policies that the chief makes.
“In the last eight years that I have been District Attorney, we have asked for zero officers to be put on paid administrative leave,” Gill says, adding, “Over the last eight years, I have probably screened over 60 officer-involved shootings. We have [deemed as] problematic three or four of those.”