Image of an SLCPD Police vehicle. (Derek Petersen | KSL TV)
SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City Police Department says an officer is in stable condition after he was shot this morning.
Salt Lake Police say they responded to a domestic dispute around 3:30 a.m. Monday morning in the apartments near 125 South 300 East where shots were then fired.
“As our officers arrived on the scene, as they located the apartment, they were outside the apartment, there was an exchange of gunfire between our officers and a possible suspect,” Det. Greg Wilking told reporters Monday morning.
At a news conference, Chief Mike Brown said officers saw the man through a window, which is when gunfire was exchanged.
“Our officers then had to make entry into that building,” Wilking said. “The suspect had then fled the scene. They had to secure that building and they found one deceased female in the building … We later came in contact with who we believe is the suspect. They are injured as well and receiving treatment.”
Police say that during the exchange of gunfire an officer was shot in his lower extremities and was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Reporters on the scene witnessed multiple officers with guns drawn at around 4:30 a.m. Police also dispatched a K9 unit. The roads in the area were closed most of the morning as officers responded.
Unified Police will be conducting the investigation per the department’s Officer-involved Critical Incident protocol. Brown said two officers will be placed on routine administrative leave during that investigation. UPD Sgt. Melody Gray said both shooting victims are believed to be in their 30s.
Neighbors in the area told KSL NewsRadio that they were woken up by gunfire. One resident of the Downing Apartments says he heard anywhere from 5-8 shots and heard officers breach the door.
“I could hear them breach the door from here inside my apartment, you could hear a boom boom boom!”
He said police came to their apartment and told everyone to stay inside, that they would be escorted in and out by officers.