Fleeing suspect in Taylorsville reportedly hides in family’s window well

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah – It was a frightening scene for a Taylorsville family after a man accused of firing a gun at a police officer tried to hide in their window well.  Investigators say the suspect took his own life shortly after being scared away from the family’s home.

Officers say a Taylorsville police officer noticed a man acting “suspiciously” near a convenience store by 4700 South and 2200 West.  That man reportedly ran away when the officer approached, then fired several shots at the officer while fleeing, causing the officer to fire back.

No one was directly hurt from the gunfire, however, a resident in a nearby assisted living center received minor shrapnel injuries from a bullet hitting the building.

Police said the suspect went into a neighborhood just south of the store and then into the window well of a home on Quailbrook Circle. That’s where 12-year-old Lucas Mann was helping to get his siblings ready for school.

“I hear a soft thud on the window and I turned, and I saw a man,” Lucas said.

Police are praising the quick thinking and calm response of a Taylorsville sixth-grader today. Twelve-year-old Lucas Mann was getting ready for school, when he spotted in his window well a man suspected of firing shots at an officer. 1/2

— TVPDUtah (@TVPDUtah) November 4, 2021

Lucas remembers the man was kneeling down, wearing either a tan or gray jacket, and he appeared to be holding something.

As soon as I saw him, I knew he must have been a robber or somebody who was trying to break in.  He was holding something, that freaked me out, a lot,” he said.  “So, I bolted upstairs and I screamed, ‘Dad, there’s a robber in our window well.’”

His mother, Rachelle Mann, said her son was clearly terrified.

“He was screaming.  He was almost in tears.  He was shaking and ran right into my husband’s closet and shut the door,” she said.

The man was gone by the time she went downstairs. Mann has reason to believe the suspect was trying to get into the house.

“The screen to that window well where he was hiding had been completely moved to the other side … not in a fallen way but in an intentional way.  So, I believe he was trying to break in,” she says.

If the suspect was trying to get into their home, Mann says he picked a good place to do it.

“The window well he is in was under, kind of, our stairs and behind a barbecue.”

Investigators say the suspect left the Mann home then went to the front yard of a nearby house where he shot himself.  They have not released any information about his identity.

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