Man killed in shootout

OREM — Police shot and killed a 40-year-old man who they say robbed a bank in Pleasant Grove and then led them on a high-speed chase that ultimately ended in a shootout in a quiet Orem neighborhood Friday afternoon.

The incident began about 3 p.m. when a tall, slender man wearing a ski mask and trench coat entered the Capital Community Bank in Pleasant Grove and brandished an automatic pistol.

The gunman, who police would not identify, grabbed a woman near the doorway and pushed her over to a teller's window, Pleasant Grove Police Chief Tom Paul said. The woman was not harmed.

The gunman ordered the teller to fill a bag with cash, then fled the bank and sped south in a car toward Orem.

Pleasant Grove police spotted the car near the intersection of Main and State streets and pursued it until they lost it near Geneva Road and 1600 North in Orem. They were able to get the car's license plate number, however.

Using that information, the car was traced to 1092 W. 220 South in Orem, a blue two-story duplex. As two Orem officers and a Pleasant Grove officer approached the house, they ordered the garage door to be opened, Paul said.

As it went up, the man, who was lying on the roof of a car, fired one shot, Paul said. He was holding a gun in each hand, the police chief said.

Police returned fire, fatally wounding the man. No one else was injured.

"I heard gunshots, and I hit the deck," said Ian Davis, a 22-year-old neighbor who said he saw the shooting from his second-story bedroom, which looks down on the duplex's garage.

Davis' description of what transpired differed from the police account. Davis said eight to 10 officers stood in a horizontal line in front of the garage and ordered the man inside to open the garage door. When the man fired, they fired back, eight to 10 rounds, Davis said.

"Pop! Pop! Pop!" Davis said. "It was pretty scary stuff."

Steve Freeland, who lives a block away, was standing across the street from the duplex, waiting for a group of Boy Scouts who were preparing to leave for a camping trip.

Freeland said three police cars, two from Orem and one from Pleasant Grove, pulled up and the officers ordered everyone standing outside to go to their homes and lock the doors.