SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 7, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — The Salt Lake City Police Department has released two police body-camera recordings of an officer-involved-critical incident, which ended in the shooting death of a man who reportedly hijacked a car at gunpoint, then fired on officers during a pursuit.
The man who died in the March 26 incident was 38-year-old Matthew Cieslack.
According to a statement by SLCPD, the incident began at 5:47 p.m. when emergency dispatchers received word of an attempted carjacking near 600 South and Interstate 15.
“After unsuccessfully carjacking one vehicle, the suspect successfully carjacked another using a firearm,” the SLCPD statement said.
Officers located the suspect in the stolen vehicle and attempted a traffic stop, SLCPD said, but the man decided to flee, leading officers on a chase that ended in an industrial area near the railroad tracks, at 220 S. Orange Street.
“At some point shots were exchanged between the suspect and two officers. The man died on scene,” the police statement said.
Neither officer was injured, nor were any of the carjacking victims, police said.
The two videos were released in keeping with a Salt Lake City regulation requiring police to release police-body camera video of OICIs within a certain number of days.
This video clip, taken from just one of two police body cameras, is disturbing, and viewers are urged to use discretion before deciding to play it.
Links to both full length body cameras are below.
The two videos released by the SLCPD, are age restricted and can only be viewed by adults who are logged into their YouTube accounts. This is a measure to protect young viewers from seeing graphic videos, SLCPD explained.
Gephardt Daily will have more information on the incident, and an eventual ruling on whether the use of deadly force on a suspect firing on officers is ruled to have been justified.
Again, viewer discretion is advised.
Here are links to video 1 and video 2.
