Police officers shoot man at Murray home

MURRAY — Two Murray police officers following up on an alleged road-rage incident, shot a man who came out of his home armed with two rifles Tuesday evening.

Just after 7:30 p.m. police responded to a road rage incident near 6200 South and 600 East, where witnesses gave them a license plate number of one of the people involved in the incident, Murray Police officer Jeff Maglish said.

Close to an hour later, after finding out the address associated with that license plate number, two officers made their way to a Murray home, near 500 East and 5900 South, according to Maglish.

"As officers arrived at the home they tried to make contact and at some point the suspect exited the home with two rifles in hand," Maglish said. "At that point the officers, feeling threatened, fired upon the suspect."

They shot 36-year-old Eric Thatcher, who was quickly rushed to a local hospital, according to Maglish.

Police were unsure at press time exactly how many times Thatcher was hit or how many shots were fired.

Thatcher did not fire any shots at the officers, but "he did hold the rifles in a threatening manner," Maglish said.

No one else was injured as a result of the incident.

"I was in the kitchen and heard four or five shots and then I just saw lots of police," said Irene Castillo, who lives just up the street from where the shooting took place.

At press time, police were unsure of Thatcher's condition.

The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office was conducting a side-by-side investigation into the shooting along with Murray detectives.

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