Reader comments
Ex-husband says Wark lived in fear

I feel bad for her and her family. I have known people with serious metal health issues and it scared me to death because I had no idea what and when they would have an out burst. Only very welled professionals can handle these serious problems. I felt helpless in helping these people with problems and had to leave the situation because it was ruining my life.

If she struggled with mental illness, how (and, in hindsight for everyone involved, why) does she have a gun?

Where are all you knee-jerk police hating commentors that criticized the store clerk for calling 911 when he saw an impaired driver leaving his station? The driver it now appears was a paranoid schizophrenic carrying a .38 and suffering auditory and visual hallucinations (common to nearly all with this condition). Don't you feel even a little sheepish for thinking the clerk should have minded his business and not called police? I worked in law enforcement for many years and dealt with many mentally ill suspects/subjects, and although Ms. Wark might have gone on without hurting anyone for a number of years, the fact that she was carrying a firearm for her protection indicates a strong immersion in hallucinations of a conspiratorial nature, i.e. "they" are out to get her. We should all be grateful to the officers who responded, because she could easily have entered a mall, restaurant, or other public gathering place and viewed the crowd as part of her hallucinations and opened fire. This incident was sad on so many levels, but she is in a better place, the officer performed his duty heroically, and no one else was injured by her condition. Thank the clerk for calling.

Last week a "mentally ill" son brutally murders his father with a butcher knife--now this. How many ticking time bombs are out there?

Word of caution: Watch how you drive; the other guy could be a real sicko who's "road rage" caused by your driving could be the cause of your demise.

I agree with the ex-husband; that families need to have some leeway in compelling adults into care. I realize it is very tricky - some would have others committed to rob them or persecute them - but there must be something more we can do.
Lives are at stake - the ill and others who might "get in the way."

to the many great law enforcers out there. I have known several good men in the profession (I am not related to any of them, nor does my job interface with them). I just want to thank you all for the risks you take and for trying to keep society safer and more civil by confronting the criminal element for us.

Thanks to this Lehi officer who was just doing his job.

I am sorry that there are those who are benefitting from your service (by living in a safer community), and yet have no gratitude.

i feel so bad for this police officer. this is got to be your worst nightmare. pull over a woman just to check her out..no obvious signs of trouble..just a simple pull over...check her out...ask her how she's doing...do a visual check and perhaps run her license and plates..and bam..she freaking pulls out a pistol and starts shooting you in the head. I just think we should be so grateful to our law enforcement people because they have high risk jobs..they put it on the line...to keep the rest of us safe. I can never thank them enough.

Let's not invent a law for everything that scares us, or that we can't explain. Does anyone understand the implications of giving others the right to commit you to a psych ward against your will? What if you had a hateful mother or aunt who just wanted to shut you up, so they tie you up and drive you to the looney-bin? How convenient for anyone who is fed up with a difficult person--TIME FOR THE "WARD", dear!!!

I am married to someone who suffers with mental illness- bi-polar and pychotic. There are times that the meds the person is on will stop working properly. It is not necessarily the meds prescribe but rather the person has a physical ailment. This happened with my husband. He was developing pneumonia as well as the fact that his kidneys were shutting down. I took him to a psych hospital they changed his meds which made him worse. They proceeded to send him to the state hospital which made things worse. His heart went into A-fib in less then a week. He was sent to another hospital to have his physical ailment taken care of which was when we found out he had pneumonia.

Please before getting you friend or family member into a pych unit have them make an appointment with a qualified doctor for a physical. I wish I did it would have saved me a lot of headaches and traveling to another city to visit him - church members took me.

My husband hasn't been in the hospital for 5 years because of mental illness and goes to the doctor when things don't seem normal (his normal).

Well said.

I hope that this officer heals quickly and does not lose any function. I hope that he is back sparring with his karate partner soon.
I hope that he can heal from the inner wounds that would come in ones heart after having someone try to end your life.
Thank you to the back up officer for being there. I am so sorry for this officer's experience of having to witness a man being down and then having to shoot the suspect. I pray that his inner wounds can heal also.
I do appreciate our civil servants so much. Even the one who gave me a ticket last week after my scatter brained mistake.
Thank you-
Gee, do you think Crispy Creme delivers to police stations? Or maybe some gift certificates are in order for your local police station.

I feel bad for both families. I do feel however that if the majority of Lehi officers spent a little less time at the Sandy watering hole and spent a little more time in training this sort of thing would not happen. Perhaps they should have taken more caution with her based on previous reports from the 911 caller.

Wow, Des News deleted post after post.

Well said, there are so many out there that disagree with the "where are the critics" post, it's just that the des News will never let them be heard. There are more newspapers that believe in Free Speech in Iran than SLC right now.

The critics are out there, just not getting past the moderators.

Nothing abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs, just trying to answer the question, have a conversation about why police officers don't seem to have the respect they used to.

At around 5:00 pm, this story was third most popular, had only 12 posts, then suddenly reduced to 7.

The blog itself is misrepresentitive.

All police are great public servants, never abusive or arrogant, treat all people with respect, file honest reports, are truthful under oath and pull people over as if they are innocent until proven guilty, and without that disclaimer, no post will be made.

:-)

Tell me again why she, or any others like her in society need to carry weapons around? How many times do these kind of tragedies have to happen? All these guns are sure protecting a lot of people, aren't they?

Response to Texan,
Kelly was a grown woman who most of the time was a gentle loving person. She loved animals, and took in many who would have died without her help. She painted butterflies and went to church every Sunday. I wish she didn't have the gun, maybe things would have turned out differently if she didn't. The important thing to remember is that she was a grown woman, who was very normal most of the time. It is very difficult legally to take away someone�s constitutional right to bear arms when they seem normal to most people. Please don't turn her into your poster child for gun laws. She was a real person with many people who are still around loved her very much. Just remember that when you talk about could have, would have, should have.

I met Kelly a few years back. I knew then something was not right. She was very shy and very quiet. My heart goes out to her family and the officer's family. What a terrible thing to happen. Actually I am sure that there are laws for the mentally ill not to possess guns. When she threatened someone with a gun before she should have been held accountable right then and maybe this would have been prevented. She was taken to a councilor and nothing was reported. This is so sad.