Some Utah shooting deaths, accidents not on homicide list

Published: Thursday, Jan. 1 2004 9:48 a.m. MST

Not all unnatural deaths are classified as homicides with criminal intent. Police-involved shootings or incidents that were ruled as self-defense or accidents were not counted in the Deseret Morning News' homicide statistics.

1. PRICE, Jan. 11 — Tony Lee Taylor, 22, was shot once at close range by police after scuffling with officers and then making threatening movements toward them with a butcher knife.

2. SALT LAKE COUNTY, May 11 — Steven Williams was shot and killed by Salt Lake County sheriff's deputies who had responded to a 911 call of a domestic dispute at a house near 3300 West and 5800 South. When deputies arrived, Williams confronted them with one knife in each hand. After water balls and pepper spray were unsuccessful in stopping him, deputies used lethal force.

3. SUMMIT COUNTY, Aug. 8 — Natalie Turner, 31, was shot and killed by police in Summit County after an aggravated-assault incident. Turner, then the executive director of the Hailey, Idaho, Chamber of Commerce, was shot five times by two officers after she pointed a .357 magnum at them. This happened after Turner was pulled over with two other people on U-248 following a chase. Officers heard several gunshots from inside the car before Turner got out and was shot by officers. Inside the car officers found Turner's ex-husband, a former president of the Home Builders Association of Summit County, shot twice. He did not die from his injuries. A third man in the car was linked to Turner and arrested.

4. UINTAH COUNTY, Aug. 8 — Ernie Martinez, 40, was shot and killed by police after shooting at them first. Uintah County sheriff's deputies and officers from the Bureau of Indian Affairs were initially called to a home on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation for a domestic dispute. Martinez shot at officers twice before they returned fire, killing him.

5. SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 8 — Jake Owens, 12, was killed after he and a 14-year-old friend were playing with a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol at a house near 9500 South and 1100 West. The boys found the gun inside a car in a garage they were cleaning.

6. SALT LAKE CITY Sept. 19 — Caleb Herrera, 14, was killed while he and a 13-year-old friend were playing with two sawed-off shotguns and two handguns. The boys had decided to skip school and go to the 14-year-old's house near 600 South and 1200 West.

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