Trooper won’t face charges after using Taser on man who fell from freeway to his death

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah Highway Patrol trooper who used his Taser to stop a fleeing man, resulting in the man falling 21 feet off the freeway to his death, will not be criminally charged.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Friday that trooper Wyatt Hancock’s use of force was legally justified, even though his office could not ultimately determine what role the Taser played in the fatal fall.

UHP troopers received multiple reports on Oct. 13, of a man running through traffic on I-15 near 600 North. Just after 9 p.m., troopers located Anthony James Valdez, 46, of Bluffdale. In body camera videos released Friday, Valdez is seen running away from troopers along the shoulder of the freeway, then running across the freeway as pursuing troopers run after him.

Valdez continued to run from troopers as he climbed up the sloped embankment east of the freeway and onto the 600 North off-ramp.

“After running north, Mr. Valdez then went over the off-ramp’s right barrier wall. As trooper Hancock neared him, he commanded him to get on the ground and then announced, ‘Taser, taser, taser!’ and deployed his Taser. As captured on trooper Hancock’s body-worn camera, as he moves closer to the barrier wall after deploying his Taser, Mr. Valdez is seen sitting on the edge of the roadway, which is approximately 7 feet and 3 inches from the barrier wall, before dropping off the roadway and disappearing from view,” according to Gill’s final report.

Hancock later told investigators he was waiting for a safe place to use his Taser because he didn’t want Valdez falling into traffic. In his body camera video, Hancock sounds genuinely surprised when he realizes how far of a drop-off there is on that side of the off-ramp. He told investigators that it was very dark when he confronted Valdez.

“The only light was coming from whatever overhead lights were from the freeway, from traffic. The brightest light was actually coming from my Taser light. So, it looked like there was trees right beyond the subject right before I deployed the Taser. Based on my familiarity with that area, I knew that the on-ramp to the opposite side had a gentle slope leading downward with grass. So I believed that it would be the same on that side,” he said.

Hancock said troopers knew they needed to bring the situation to a quick end because of the danger Valdez was presenting by running into traffic. Valdez had been running intermittently in and out of traffic for about 40 minutes. Hancock said he assumed he would be using a Taser at some point, according to the report, “But it was a question of when and knowing when was the safe spot to do that.”

According to the report from the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner, which also reviewed body camera video in trying to determine a manner of death, Valdez “appears to be preparing to push himself off of the ledge when the Taser is deployed. It is not clear at what point the barbs strike his body and what role the device might have had in his death,” according to Gill’s report.

The medical examiner also found meth and amphetamine in Valdez’s system.

Although the Taser deployment appeared to be successful, Gill said his office also could not determine if the Taser caused Valdez to fall from the ramp, or if he was already in the process of jumping when he was tased.

“In this case, we were unable to determine whether, and to what extent, if any, the Taser deployment caused Mr. Valdez to fall from the ledge; we could also not rule out that the Taser deployment did not cause or contribute to Mr. Valdez’s death. In other words, we were unable to determine, based on the body-worn camera recordings, as well as other evidence in this case, whether Mr. Valdez’s fall was voluntary (e.g., he jumped or pushed himself) or involuntary (i.e., the result of being tasered). Notably, while the medical examiner determined that Mr. Valdez died of blunt force injuries, he was similarly unable to determine the manner of death,” Gill’s report states.

During a press conference on Friday to announce his office’s findings, Gill commended Hancock several times for speaking to investigators — something many officers choose not to do during a critical incident investigation — and explaining what was going through his mind at the time he deployed his Taser.

Gill says he met with Valdez’s family before the press conference. He called the incident a “terrible tragedy” and noted that Hancock and other troopers were trying to take Valdez into custody safely.