Utah police released footage of a deadly shooting between two Roy City officers and an armed suspect. The shootout happened in February of this year. The police released the footage for informational purposes and it shows the officers taking immediate shooting actions.
Police are not releasing the identities of the officers at this time pending investigation by the Attorney General’s office. The officers shot and killed the suspect, Nicolas Sanchez, 39. The video shows the shooting from one officer’s perspective. Both are under leave for the duration of the investigation.
The police were responding to an emergency call placed by a convenience store clerk. The officers found Sanchez trespassing and loitering in front of the store, nearby an idling car. The first officer called Sanchez over to talk to him away from the store entrance.
Sanchez reluctantly approached the officers with his hand in his pocket. When the officer’s partner told Sanchez to “Keep your hands out of your pockets,” he lifted his jacket to show that he was taking his hands out, revealing a pistol.
“You got a gun on you, do no reach,” said the officer’s partner. “Yeah, do not reach,” said the first officer. At this point, Sanchez broke to flee on foot, reaching for his gun in the process.
See Also: Baltimore Bodycam Footage Shows Shooting Death of 18-Year-Old
The officers pursued, with the first officer tackling Sanchez. In the very short encounter the video shows the officer and Sanchez wrestling over his pistol. While the two were fighting the second officer opened fire on Sanchez after hearing gunshots. Breaking free from Sanchez, the first officer had fired several shots using the suspect’s own pistol.
After the shooting, the two police officers hold Sanchez, still on the parking lot, at gunpoint, until backup arrives. Video shows a pistol at Sanchez’s feet after the shooting. It’s not clear if that’s the pistol the officer took from Sanchez to use against him or a second handgun.
“Fearing Sanchez may have another weapon, and hearing shots fired, the first officer shot Sanchez with the gun he had wrestled from Sanchez. When the first officer saw Sanchez was not moving, he dropped Sanchez’s gun and drew his gun from his holster,” said Roy City Police attorney Heather White.
“Sanchez’s reckless actions in those split seconds dictated the actions the officers took that day,” said White. “The officers did what they are trained to do and what we expect them to do: protect themselves and others against violent and irrational behavior. Because of their actions, no one but Sanchez was injured that night.”
“Sanchez had an extensive criminal history, which included assault, battery, robbery, drug possession, possession of stolen property, gang activity, weapons violations, controlled substance violations, parole violations, DUI, unlawful discharge of a weapon at a person from a car and attempted murder,” said White.
OK, the cop shot him with his own handgun, so that means the guy was unarmed because the cop had his gun. Why did he have to shoot him?
It’s called reading, here let me help you..
“Fearing Sanchez may have another weapon, and hearing shots fired, the first officer shot Sanchez with the gun he had wrestled from Sanchez.”
maybe this was one of obama’s buddies he left out of jail, if so obama just did us one favor.
Glad the Officers involved were not hurt by this’ vile piece of trash. One less piece of crap here on earth that taxpayers won’t have to subsidize ever again.
So u say.
All I hope is that if me or someone else has to defend against an armed intruder in the home that we would not be penalized for emptying 12-15 shots in someone…It’s ok for officers to shoot like that, hopefully for “us” too.
Well done. I will say I wasn’t comfortable with the officer continuing to point his pistol at the suspect as other officers arrived who were now in the line of fire. As more and more arrive, they circled around the suspect. Had one of them fired, others would have likely fired and there would have likely been wounded officers. I see this time and time again at officer involved shootings in open areas, particularly parking lots where rounds will ricochet. Someone needs to immediately take charge and keep this potential crossfire scenario from happening – could be tragic. This is meant to be constructive criticism. Yes, I’m a cop (retired).
Why was this criminal on the street? Armed? Proves how worthless all the Democrat gun laws are and how dangerous their soft on crime sentencing is.
U saw his firearm? I saw someone running from a death squad. I guess people just see what they want.lol
What kind of douche bag are you John. Everybody watching the video saw his firearm when he lifted up his sweatshirt. Evidently everyone but you. If getting the criminals off the streets is what happens when we deploy death squads then maybe we should deploy more of them.
All he had to do was comply.
Why was this THUG on the street to begin with when he had that rapsheet? Releasing people with multiple drug offenses or petty thefts but who are otherwise nonviolent is one thing. When you start releasing violent criminals all the time it is an unacceptable risk to the public. Thank God these officers were on duty and this thug is off our streets.
The response of the officer and the remainder of the Roy police department suggests to me they are a well trained, brave and dedicated force of officers. I’d live in Roy, Utah in a heartbeat!
The Roy PD is to be commended for their level of training. The PD acted as a finely oiled machine during the video I watched. My hats off to that dept.!
That was some fast trigger action. I’m interested in finding out what type of pistol the perp had on him.
“DO NOT MOVE!!!!!”
Unlikely, as the chap had a full mag emptied into his corpulent mass. He is now a colander.
LMAO, I know this is a serious incident but ya got to wonder…and I have wondered why the police these days are obviously trained to unload their weapons. Not smart for a couple of reasons one being lack of ammo to face other potential threats and the other being a waste of ammo.
Good point, well made. A double tap to centre of mass would be enough to drop him like a bad habit… However, you can afford to unload your whole mag when it’s not your shooter. The cop didn’t even have to use his issued piece, he killed him with the one he borrowed! He’s saving public money also!
Excellent and proper response by officer. Thanks for your serve.