SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 3, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A federal judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit filed in September 2020 by the family of Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal, who was shot and killed while fleeing Salt Lake City Police officers in May of that year.
Judge David Barlow on Thursday dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, which means Palacios’ family cannot refile the same suit.
In his judgement, Barlow wrote that the Palacios family’s attorney did not cite any Utah law demonstrating how police violated Palacios-Carbajal’s constitutional rights.
Barlow also wrote that the “defendants did not violate Mr. Palacio’s constitutional rights, and the individual officers are entitled to qualified immunity.”
The officers were responding to a call reporting an armed robbery in the area of 900 South and 300 West when they encountered 22-year-old Palacios, who fled on foot and who was seen with a gun.
Salt Lake City Police officials shared bodycam video of the chase, and the fatal shooting. They released another video a few days later, when District Attorney Sim Gill announced he had found officers were justified in their use of force because police told him they believed Palacios was going to shoot.
In the weeks that followed, protesters organized marches, some of which included vandalizing government buildings with red paint, to represent wrongly spilled blood. Gov. Spencer Cox declared a state of emergency.
