CRIME, POLICE + COURTS
Hostage situation in Tooele ends with fatal officer-involved shooting
Oct 18, 2020, 10:38 AM | Updated: Dec 29, 2022, 1:01 pm
FILE: (Photo Credit: Paul Nelson)
(Photo Credit: Paul Nelson)
SALT LAKE CITY — A tense standoff between Tooele police and a man who reportedly took his girlfriend hostage ended in the early morning hours Sunday with a fatal officer-involved shooting.
Tooele City Police Chief Ron Kirby told KSL his office received a call around 9:00 p.m. Saturday from someone reporting that an armed man had violated a protective order.
Police responded to an as-yet-unidentified strip mall, where the man reportedly took a woman hostage. The woman is believed to be his girlfriend.
Tooele City police say this was the beginning of a “very long, very tense” standoff with police which included professional negotiators.
Tooele City Police spokesman Lt. Jeremy Hansen said the suspect had also taken a juvenile male hostage, who was released several hours before “the situation reached its boiling point.”
Chief Kirby said the standoff ended near 3:00 a.m. when the suspect “went for his gun.” At that point, police fatally shot the man “to protect the woman and themselves,” Kirby said.
Kirby says the woman involved had serious injuries after the shooting and was transported by a ground ambulance to a hospital.
The suspect has not been identified pending notification of his family.
Tooele City Police will be conducting an administrative investigation, while the Department of Public Safety will investigate under the Officer Involved Critical Incident protocol.
