SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah, April 8, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A suspect is dead after an officer-involved shooting Monday that involved 15 crime scenes, multiple law enforcement agencies and covered an area stretching several square miles.
The suspect was identified Monday afternoon as Harold Vincent Robinson, 37, of West Valley City, said a multi-agency press release.
● The incident began with a 10:06 a.m. call of an armed robbery at a Holiday Oil in Taylorsville, Salt Lake City Police Department Chief Mike Brown said.
● Next came a second armed robbery call from a 7-Eleven on 911 E. 3300 South. There were shots fired in the latter incident, but no one was injured, Brown said. Both incidents had the same description of the suspect and the suspect vehicle involved.
● A call of shots fired was then received in the area of 115 West and 500 South, at 10:42 a.m., Brown said.
“Our officers saw the suspect vehicle on eastbound 500 South, and initiated a pursuit,” Brown said. “It went southbound on State Street. Multiple police officers from multiple jurisdictions were involved in this pursuit. As the suspect was driving southbound on State Street, he was leaning out of the window, firing a rifle, in the direction of our officers.”
The vehicle then crashed into Princess Alterations at 3339 State St. in South Salt Lake; it’s not clear whether officers hit the suspect vehicle or the suspect crashed with no other vehicle involved.
Brown said the suspect is now deceased, and there are no outstanding suspects. Brown did not elaborate on the cause of death of the suspect, but said the officer-involved shooting protocol team is responding, headed by the West Valley City Police Department.
Multiple officers from Salt Lake City Police, Utah Highway Patrol, and the Unified Police
Department were involved in the officer involved critical incident. All are on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
Brown said one UPD officer was injured from a ricochet, and he has very minor injuries.
He added there are multiple scenes throughout Salt Lake City, so any witnesses that saw anything are asked to contact the SLCPD.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera also spoke:
“We have a lot going on, but we are asking the public, if you heard or saw anything please call us. We need to hear from people, we need to make sure everyone that saw something comes forward. As we hear more, we will provide more.”
Businessman Douglas Strate told Gephardt Daily he was on his way downtown when he encountered the gunman firsthand. Strate said he and his friend were stopped at the traffic light at 200 East and 500 South when a pickup truck sped their way.
“This big white pickup truck pulls up right up next to us on the passenger side, my buddy was looking face to face with him, and he made a comment, like ‘What the f—‘s going on,’ or something, I don’t know the exact words he said but something to that effect,” Strate said. “And then he just opened fire and put two shots into the hood of my car and my buddy just made a comment like ‘What the f—‘s going on,’ and he unloaded six or seven more shots into my hood and just took off, went east on 500 South.
“He just shot at the car, he wasn’t out to kill anybody it didn’t seem like, cause there’d be a lot of people dead,” Strate added. “If he wanted people dead, there would have been quite a few people dead, I would imagine. It all happened in five seconds probably, so at first I thought it was all fake, I didn’t think it was real, the first two shots. He pulled a gun out, and he didn’t say much, and then he shot the two shots and then my buddy made the comment and then he all of a sudden shoots six more shots and then that’s when I realized that, wow, this is real shots going on here, and then he was gone.” Strate said the gun appeared to be an AR-15.
Strate’s vehicle is dead, he added, and will not start.
His friend, Russell Allen, said he locked eyes with the gunman.
“As I look over at him and we lock eyes, he fires off two rounds, pop pop, and I was like, ‘What the f— Motherf—–‘ and he said ‘What did you say Motherf—–‘ and pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, he unloads what he had and I said ‘F— you Motherf—– and then he drove away.” Allen said. “Here you are just minding your own business in downtown Salt Lake, and it could have been my daughter growing up without me.” Allen said the man had bloodshot eyes and appeared to be under the influence.
A witness to the latter part of the incident, Manoli Katsanevas, was driving from Low Book Sales, at 3371 S. State St. He told Gephardt Daily:
“I was driving, and the truck must have crashed right before I got out of Low Book Sales,” Katsanevas said.
“Next thing I know, cops are coming over the island, about like nine or 10 of them. Before I could even comprehend what had happened there, shots started firing off, and I kind of had to get into a situation of what am I going to do here.
“I just threw my car in reverse and went right back down the road to where I came from, I didn’t want to mess with any of that, there were probably 30 shots fired throughout the whole thing too. I was close enough to hear all the ricochets and hear the shots whizzing right past me. It definitely was a traumatic experience.”
Gephardt Daily has a crew on the scene and will have more on this developing story as information is made available.
To share information about this incident with the SLCPD call 801-799-3000. To remain anonymous, text crime tips to 274637. Start the text with the keyword TIPSLCPD (which routes it to SLCPD), then a space, followed by the relevant information or photos. Reference: crimetip.
This is crazy. Great coverage of this story! I’m just glad no innocent people were hurt.