SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 24, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A federal judge is allowing a lawsuit to proceed against four Ogden police officers in the 2019 fatal shooting of a man armed with a pocketknife.
Jovany Mercado, 26, died as a result of the shooting by the officers on Aug. 16, 2019, in front of his home where he lived with his parents. The officers who fired their guns were cleared by a departmental internal review, as well as a criminal review by the Weber County Attorney’s Office before the lawsuit was filed in July 2020.
Mercado was armed with a pocketknife when he was shot simultaneously by the officers after ignoring commands to drop the knife, police said. Instead, he continued to walk toward officers in an allegedly threatening manner.
U.S. District Court for Utah Chief Judge Robert J. Shelby dismissed all but one of the multiple causes of action in the suit filed by Mercado’s parents, Juan and Rosa Mercado, in the 68-page decision released Friday in response to the city’s motion for dismissal.
“Surviving this motion are [the Mercados’] claims on behalf of Jovany Mercado’s estate for excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment and for violation of article 1 and 14 of the Utah Constitution,” the judge wrote.
The motion from the defendants for “judgment” or dismissal is a final step before a suit typically goes to trial, or settlement. The lawsuit’s remaining cause of action relates to protections against unlawful search and seizure.
The suit contends the officers should have treated the response to the Mercado residence as a welfare check instead of a crime in progress.
The 5-foot-7, 135-pound man had been walking about the neighborhood, holding a pocketknife in a disoriented and uncommunicative state, but never threatened anyone — including the officers, according to the lawsuit.
The suit also notes the incident was dispatched to the officers as a weapons disturbance, but dispatchers also advised that 911 callers said the suspect had not threatened anyone with the knife.
The judge dismissed claims of negligence by Ogden City in alleged failure to train officers, alleged denial of Mercado’s rights of due process and other constitutional protections, and claims that a search warrant served on the Mercado home four hours after the shooting was nothing but harassment.
Police were called to the area of 32nd Street and Gramercy for the fatal incident at 8:55 p.m. Aug. 16, 2019. The caller reported an apparently disoriented man approaching residents with a knife. The callers were having a yard party and felt threatened by the man.
“He seemed disoriented, and they considered him to be a safety concern,” then-Police Chief Randy Watt told reporters a few hours after the incident.
“Four officers in three cars went to the scene. The suspect had moved to a carport nearby, and the witnesses flagged down the officers and pointed that out. The officers get out of their vehicles, and they approached. They identified the individual standing there, and he was holding a knife,” Watt said.
Officers ordered the man multiple times to drop the knife, he said.
“He did not do so, and he began advancing on the officers,” the chief said.
“They ordered him repeatedly to stop and to drop the knife. He did not do so. All four officers fired their service pistols. The suspect went down there, near the sidewalk, coming out of the carport. Medical was called to the scene and he was declared deceased right there.”
Watt said the officers could not have retreated farther than they did, but he did not elaborate on what was blocking them.
“There was distance, but not enough for the officers to retreat any further than they did, and they were forced to take the actions they did. He was advancing on the officers, holding a knife in a threatening manner,” he said.
Watt said all four officers who were at the scene are patrol officers, adding that “one of them is a probationer who is accompanied by a field training officer.”
