Man with knife killed by police in West Valley City

WEST VALLEY CITY — Police officers shot and killed a man Saturday after he refused to drop a knife directed at his wife.

The shooting occurred around 3:30 p.m. during a busy afternoon in a West Valley neighborhood, and residents say it's the first serious violent incident in a long time in the area.

The man, in his mid-30s, had pushed his wife at knifepoint around the block from their home, threatening when cops showed up "that he was going to kill her and he began counting down," said West Valley Police Capt. Tom McLachlan.

When police backed off at one point, the man stopped counting but began again, and McLachlan said that's when police fired and shot the man. The woman was not harmed.

"In the eight years I've lived here, there really hasn't been this kind of violence," neighbor Jerry Gardner told KSL-TV. "There have been a couple car wrecks, a few stupid people that are drunk, but nothing to this extent."

The couple's daughter called 911 from inside their home, reporting that her mother was being beaten. McLachlan said the girl told dispatchers that her mother was "gasping for breath" as her father stood over her when the altercation began.

Police did not release the name of the gunman Saturday night.

The couple have a history of domestic abuse, and police have been called to their home, near 3300 South and 1900 West, multiple times, including an incident last week in which the man had been chasing the woman's vehicle and ramming it with his pickup truck in the parking lot at the Valley Fair Mall.

The shooting is the fourth officer-involved shooting this year in West Valley City. The officer who fired the deadly shot has not been named but was placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated by an outside agency.

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