Police fatally shoot suicidal man charging towards him (Sandy, Utah)

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https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/04/15/sandy-police-officer-fired/

26 March 2023

A Sandy police officer fatally shot a reportedly suicidal man about seven seconds after ordering the 33-year-old to show his hands, body camera footage released Friday shows.

The man's brother had called police at about 1 a.m. on March 26 for help, prompting an officer to respond. Dylan Murphy had left a home in Sandy while seriously injured, suicidal and experiencing a mental health criѕis, police said.

The responding officer found Murphy walking along 1000 East near 11640 South, officials said. When the officer called out to him, Murphy didn't seem to react and kept walking, body camera footage shows.

The officer reported to police dispatch that Murphy had his right hand concealed in a jacket, and officials said Friday that the family was not sure if Murphy had a weapon at the time — because Murphy had harmed himself earlier in the evening, officials said.

About a minute and a half after the officer began following Murphy in his patrol vehicle, Murphy can be seen turning around and starting to walk toward the officer. The officer then gets out of his car and commands Murphy show his hands.

Murphy starts running toward the officer, body camera footage shows, and the officer aims his firearm at Murphy while commanding him to show his hands for a second time.

The officer then shouts "Hands!" at Murphy twice more before firing his weapon at least three times — about seven seconds after his first command to Murphy, the footage shows.

It's unclear if Murphy was struck by the officer's initial gunfire; the officer was running backward while shooting at Murphy, and at one point fell on his back.

Once the officer gets up, he shouts three more times for Murphy to show his hands, the footage shows. Murphy then charges the officer, and the officer shoots at Murphy twice more.

At that point, Murphy falls to the ground, groaning and panting. It's unclear in the video if any of those shots struck Murphy.

The officer then yells again for Murphy to show his hands, and orders Murphy to roll over, the footage shows.

"Come on, man," Murphy seems to reply, still lying on his stomach. Murphy then rolls over with his hands in the air, and the officer commands him to then roll back onto his stomach, to which he complies.

The officer then orders Murphy to keep his arms out, but Murphy instead tries to get up off the ground. The officer repeatedly commands Murphy to remain where he is.

"Stay on the ground. I will shoot," the officer says, but Murphy moves to a crawling position before standing up and walking toward the officer.

The officer shouts three more commands, then shoots Murphy in the torso over the course of about 13 seconds, the footage shows. Murphy then falls to the ground, and died due to his injuries.

"All of our officers are equipped with less-lethal forms [of force] — whether it be Taser, [pepper spray] or baton," Sandy police Chief Greg Severson said Friday. "As you can see from the video, this incident escalated extremely quickly. Typically during deadly force encounters like this situation, especially with an officer being alone, we do not trаin our officers to use less than lethal mitigation when they're alone."

Severson said Murphy had a "history" with the department, but did not specify Friday what that history was.

Throughout the confrontation — which lasted a little over three minutes between the officer's initial sighting of Murphy to when Murphy was fatally shot — there was only one Sandy police officer present.

Severson said a second officer was redirected to the scene from another assignment, so that's why it "took some time."

According to the footage, the sole responding officer fired his weapon about six times at Murphy. Officials said exactly how many times Murphy was struck will be investigated according to "officer-involved critical incident" protocol.

The officer, who was not identified, remains on paid administrative leave. He has been a member of the department since March 2021, Severson said.

https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/family-continues-to-mourn-after-bodycam-video-shows-man-killed-by-sandy-police-officer

SANDY, Utah — On Friday, Sandy Police released camera video of the night an officer shot and killed 33-year-old Dylan Murphy.

His sister, Laecie Horn, has now watched that video of her brother's death several times.

"He was a good human. That's it. He really was a good man, good little brother," she said."

She said Dylan battled addiction and mental health issues, which is why her other brother KC called police on that night, March 26th.

He reported Dylan had severely slit his wrists and KC was scared he was going to bleed out.

"He's tried to check himself in, he told me he's having thoughts they were intrusive. He really wanted help," she said.

She said she is still in disbelief that her brother is gone.

"I find myself calling his phone on accident," said Horn, "Just the other day. I miss him very much and I don't know what I'm gonna go through without it."

She compared the police body camera and dash camera footage with a neighbor's Ring camera footage, and Laecie said things don't add up.

"There's no lights on, he didn't turn them on," she said, "And then this video ends. So, where's the rest of the shootings he just did, why did they have to cut that out? I'm confused."

She said the Ring camera video shows the car lights turned on, which a neighbor said happened after he woke up from the sounds of the original gunshots.

"That officer clearly fired another shot with his lights on," she said. "He shoots another round into my brother who I clearly know at this point from seeing their footage that he was already dead. I wanna know specifically why the officers that I gave all that trust to specifically I didn't go crazy this whole entire time, I trusted them. I waited for the footage to come out before I made any type of assumptions, and I've seen how crazy my brother was but then they doctored stuff."

She said she does forgive the officer.

"I just hope that this officer gets the chance to come to terms with whatever happened that night," Horn said.

She also added that she hopes it never happens to another family again, and that there are better resources for those struggling with mental health issues and addiction, as well as the police response to cases like Dylan's.

"I have to say if I was the officer in the situation, I couldn't say that I wouldn't defend myself, but I also would have been paying attention to surroundings and knowing, hey, I've got this guy that I really want to, I want to get down out of this mental health situation. Let me get to him somehow safer or you know let him feel more calm about me," she said.

Her wish is that Dylan's story will bring people together to get people like her brother the help that they need.

"I hope that we can just become a community and figure it out together as a team," Horn said.

https://kutv.com/newsletter-daily/family-of-sandy-man-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-questions-police-dylan-murphy-non-lethal-options-questions-remain-brother-father

SANDY, Utah (KUTV) — The father and brother of Dylan Murphy, a 33-year-old man from Sandy, who was killed in an officer-involved shooting last month, are seeking answers from the police.

According to Kevan Murphy, Dylan's father, he decided not to watch the body camera video as the image of his son lying lifeless in the road would be too painful for him.

When asked about his questions for the police, Kevan said, "Why shoot? Why shoot guns instead of taser him?

His father and brother described him as a loving person who adored his children and was lost.

"Not being able to see him or give him a hug ever again is really rough," Kevan said.

Dylan Murphy:

Video source:

https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/sandy-police-release-videos-from-fatal-officer-involved-shooting