3 Ogden officers gain OK for return to work

Three Ogden police officers involved in a shootout that killed Jessie Turnbow are back on the job today.

An internal investigation by the Ogden Police Department cleared the officers to return to work.

"This report conducts a review of our policies and procedures," Ogden Assistant Police Chief Wayne Tarwater said Wednesday. "The officers acted within policy."

The police department refused to release the names of the officers involved in the Dec. 18 shooting. The Weber County Attorney's Office is still conducting its own investigation into the deadly confrontation with Turnbow, 29.

"That's independent and stands alone, obviously," Tarwater said. "All this is is an internal review."

Police said Turnbow left his girlfriend's home near 34th Street and Adams Avenue after an argument and walked up to the intersection of 35th Street and Jefferson Avenue.

Officers responded to a 911 call of a man with a gun in the neighborhood and confronted Turnbow there.

Witnesses told the Deseret Morning News that Turnbow turned to officers with their guns drawn, shouted "Shoot me!" and opened fire on them with a sawed-off shotgun.

"They said it two or three times, 'Drop the gun. Drop the gun.' Then all of a sudden, he said 'Shoot me!' Then we heard the shotgun go boom," said one witness, Esther Green, in an interview shortly after the shooting took place.

Police reported "multiple" exchanges of gunfire before Turnbow was killed. Shotgun pellets tore apart the windshield of a patrol car. Police bullets hit a tree and cars around Turnbow.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com