SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah, Nov. 24, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — A South Salt Lake police officer is fighting for his life Saturday night after he responded to a call about a burglary in progress and the burglary suspects rammed into him with their vehicle.
Gary Keller, executive officer for South Salt Lake Police Department, said the call reporting the burglary came in at about 5:30 p.m.
Two officers were dispatched to a business complex at 3575 W. West Temple, and there was a confrontation between the burglary suspects and the officers, Keller said.
“The suspects were in a car. They accelerated and hit one of the officers,” Keller said. “He was transported to the hospital in critical condition and was taken immediately into surgery.”
Keller said the injured officer is in the trauma center at a local hospital.
Police from multiple agencies were arriving to assist the South Salt Lake officers.
Shots were fired at the suspects in the vehicle, Keller said, and one of the suspects was hit by gunfire and has died of his wounds.
The other suspect fled on foot, but was taken into custody without incident a short while later, after police established a containment area and brought in K-9 units to search for him.
Keller described the scene as “massive,” explaining that officials are actually investigating three separate crime scenes: the complex on West Temple where the officers confronted the burglary suspects; the place where the suspects abandoned their car; and the spot where the second suspect was taken into custody.
“There was a lot of response from outside agencies, including the K-9 units tracking the suspect,” Keller said.
Officials are not releasing the names of the injured officer or the suspects at this time.
“Command staff is at the hospital … and other officers, I’m sure,” Keller said. “It’s tough on everybody in the entire department when you have an officer injured to this extent. It’s very tough, but we need to do our job, and we keep moving on, moving forward.”
Gephardt Daily will update this story as more details are made available.
