No charges filed against officers in fatal Magna shooting last November
Aug 22, 2024, 5:41 PM
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill shows video evidence as he speaks during a review of a past officer-involved critical incident held at the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office building in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (Isaac Hale/Deseret News)
(Isaac Hale/Deseret News)
MAGNA, Utah — Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill will not file any criminal charges against a group of nine police officers involved in a fatal Magna shooting in November. Gill said witness video showed the man pointing a handgun at officers.
On Nov. 15, 2023, officers responded just after midnight to calls of shots fired in a neighborhood in Magna.
They found a man firing off shots in his house and in the street.
When officers responded, they tried to talk the man down, Gill said.
He said officers only started shooting after the man pointed his handgun in their direction.
“They demonstrated incredible restraint. They knew that he had weapons and had calls for it, but he had not yet pointed it in a way where they would have felt directly threatened,” Gill said.
According to Gill, just one officer let them interview him for this investigation. The investigation also used witness video that showed Joseph Dean Black pointing a gun at officers.
The video also showed the man’s daughter coming out of the house and trying to get his gun away from him at one point.
Black was declared dead at the scene of the Magna shooting.
