'Come get me,' firefighter told 911 before standoff

Wood barricaded self in truck; clash ended in his death

FARMINGTON — "Come get me."

Those are the last words part-time Farmington firefighter Brian Wood, 36, said to Davis County 911 dispatchers Sept. 22 before he engaged in a 12-hour standoff with police that ended in his death. In a 911 recording made public Tuesday, Wood stated he had assaulted his wife.

"I just beat and raped my wife. Come get me," he said before hanging up.

John Cummings, an attorney who is representing Wood's family, said he has spoken with Elizabeth Wood and she said Brian Wood did not beat and rape her.

"She emphatically states that did not happen," Cummings said in an official statement. The family declined further comment.

After Brian hung up the phone, a dispatcher called back and Elizabeth Wood answered the phone. She sounded distraught, but tried to reassure dispatchers everything was fine.

"What's going on over there?" the dispatcher asked.

"It's fine," Elizabeth Wood said. "His dad is here right now. I'm fine."

She then told the dispatcher not to send anyone.

"The last time they came it didn't even do me any d--- favors," she said emotionally. "I do not want anybody here."

Prior to this fatal standoff, police had responded to another dispute at the Woods' home March 12. Wood and his wife were reportedly having a domestic dispute before police arrived. Wood surrendered himself after a four-hour standoff.

On Sept. 22, Wood armed himself with two pistols and fired a shot into a garbage can before barricading himself inside his truck at 115 E. 100 North and faced off with police from Farmington, Clearfield and Bountiful as well as Davis County sheriff's deputies. Elizabeth Wood and the couple's 10-year-old son were able to leave the house before the standoff began.

During the standoff, officers fired a tear gas canister that broke the driver's side window of the truck where Wood was sitting, but the tear gas failed to penetrate the truck.

Negotiators made several attempts to talk Wood into surrendering, police said, but those attempts were fruitless. Police also said Wood made physical and verbal threats to officers and would hold a gun to his head from time to time.

Around 9 p.m., police employed nonlethal tactics to take Wood into custody, firing tear gas and flash grenades. The exact sequence of events is still under investigation by the Utah Attorney General's Office, but it appears Wood fired a shot and a Davis County deputy returned fire, killing him.

Wood's friends and family are upset by how the standoff ended.

"I just thought it was horrible — just like someone tormenting an animal in a cage," Wood's longtime friend Wade Lake said.

Wood's father, Jerry Wood, said that before his son was shot, officers dropped him to the ground with a jolt from a Taser and fired at the downed man.

Jerry Wood said his son was a typical man who was screaming for help the night he was shot. Though Wood expressed suicidal thoughts, he was only a threat to himself, his father said.

The Wood family has retained an attorney and is contemplating a wrongful death lawsuit against the police department.

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E-mail: jdana@desnews.com

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