Police shooting at Pioneer Park. (Morgan Wolfe KSL TV)
SALT LAKE CITY– At least one person is dead following an incident that led to a police shooting at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City Thursday morning.
The Salt Lake City Fire Department were the first responders on the scene around 8:40 a.m. after receiving a call about a stabbing victim. Once they got to the scene, the fire chief said construction workers were already helping the woman stabbed.
SLCPD Chief Mike Brown said during a news conference the victim suffered “many lacerations” and if it weren’t “for the actions of bystanders rendering aid, she may have died from her injuries.”
Salt Lake City Police arrived at the park around 9 a.m. Chief Brown said officers’ attention directed toward a possible male suspect who was just a short distance away. According to Chief Brown, one of the officers on the scene noticed the man was holding a knife and asked him to put it down.
“The man began to walk toward officers and then ran at them with a knife in hand,” said Chief Brown. Despite officer commands, police claim the man charged them.
“When the man got close enough to the officers, still holding the knife, two officers fired their weapons,” said Brown.
The man police shot died on scene. There has been no confirmation if the person they fatally shot was the same person who stabbed the woman in the park, but they are working under the assumption that he was.
The woman was taken to the hospital with critical injuries, according to authorities.
Salt Lake City Erin Mendenhall expressed her condolences to the woman stabbed, stating “the woman was stabbed somewhere everyone deserves to feel safe—in one of our city parks.” She also acknowledged those who responded to the scene in order to help the woman.
Mendenhall said she reviewed the bodycam footage from the fatal shooting, noting she believes “this is a choice they [officers] had to make,” as a matter of public safety.
The bodycam footage reviewed sparked Mendenhall to call the situation “excellent police work under threatening and terrible circumstances.”
That bodycam footage is not publically available, but Chief Brown said the department will release the video within ten business days, in ordnance with city policies. More details on the situation should become available then. West Valley Police Department is now investigating the case.