Riverton sergeant found ‘legally justified’ in July 4 shooting, killing of armed man

RIVERTON — A Riverton police sergeant was legally justified in shooting and killing a hit-and-run suspect armed with a knife following a Fourth of July fireworks show in Riverton last year, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Friday.

About 11:20 p.m. on that day, Ryan Patrick Ludeman, 44, was driving a 2016 Arctic Cat Wildcat side-by-side vehicle when he was involved in a hit-and-run crash near 1300 West and 12800 South. Ludeman was located and pulled over a short time later by police. He denied having anything to drink and refused field sobriety tests, according to the final report released Friday by Gill.

Just before midnight, Ludeman again refused to do a sobriety test. Riverton Police Sgt. E.J. Estrada told Ludeman he wanted to do the tests to make sure he was good to drive.

“Nope,” Ludeman told him.

In body camera video released Friday, Estrada then kneels down to talk to Ludeman, who is sitting on the curb with his hands clasped together in front of him. At that point, Estrada detects an odor of alcohol on Ludeman’s breath and tells him he smells like alcohol, the report states.

“Sure,” Ludeman responded.

It’s then that Estrada decides to take Ludeman into custody and tells him to stand up. Ludeman disobeys his commands. In body camera videos, Estrada and a second officer bend down to grab ahold of Ludeman to get him to stand up. Estrada grabs Ludeman’s left wrist. As he pulls the left hand away from his body, Estrada sees a knife in Ludeman’s right hand and hears the clicking sound of the knife being opened.

The second officer who was present during the confrontation said Estrada immediately yelled multiple times, “He’s got a knife.”

“A brief and dynamic struggle ensued during which Sgt. Estrada drew his handgun and fired at Mr. Ludeman three times,” the report states.

“It happened really fast,” the second officer continued. “(Estrada) was standing, and (Ludeman) was kind of on his knees, from what I remember. Almost like if you’re wrestling, you’re going to take out somebody’s knees.

“It seemed like (Estrada) was trying to back off and went to gun, and fired at him, and then he just dropped right there,” the officer said.

“Review of body-worn camera recordings indicate that Sgt. Estrada fired his weapon about five seconds after he began asking Mr. Ludeman to put his hands behind his back,” according to the report.

An autopsy determined Ludeman was shot in the head and twice in the neck. His blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.143% and amphetamines were also found in his system, the report states.

Estrada declined to be interviewed for the investigation. But in police body camera video reviewed by the district attorney’s office, Estrada tells another officer shortly after the shooting, “He pulled the knife on me when I went to (arrest him).”

Based on the totality of the situation, Gill said Friday it wasn’t unreasonable for Estrada to believe his life and the life of his partner were in danger.

“They’ve got their hands on him when that right hand comes up and the blade clicks open. At that moment … he could have stabbed Estrada right there because he’s like less than a foot-and-a-half, 2 feet from the blade. He’s right on top of him,” Gill said.

In reviewing the officers’ body camera videos, Gill said Ludeman is seen reaching into his back pocket and grabbing his knife as he’s walking toward the curb to sit down, something the officers apparently didn’t see. But Gill also notes that at no time did Ludeman tell the officers that he had a knife in his hand as they were talking to him.

“He does not tell anyone that he has the knife. And then he makes the conscious choice to open the knife,” the district attorney said. “It is not unreasonable with the totality of that to infer that at that point, from my perspective, that he’s flipped that knife open and he’s done it with one purpose and one purpose only — because he plans on using it on the officers. And people can disagree with that, but in the totality of all the sequences that we have, that is the conclusion that we’re left with.”