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WEST HAVEN -- A Weber County man is dead following a shooting with deputies outside his home. The Friday incident killed 64-year-old Michael John Taylor, who was out on bail on charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child in North Ogden.
Taylor's wife called dispatch just before 5 p.m., saying Taylor had been drinking and was threatening to kill himself. As the dispatcher was on the phone, a single shot was heard.
When deputies arrived, they confronted Taylor, who they say they went into a barn on his property and refused to come out. That's when they began negotiations.
"It was about 90 minutes into this that the man walked back out with the revolver in his hand and marched towards the officer. They ordered him to drop his gun, ordered him to stop, and he ignored them," said Capt. Klint Anderson, spokesman for the Weber County Sheriff's Office.
As he got closer, a deputy fired his gun, hitting Taylor in the head and killing him.
In addition to the sex abuse charges, Taylor faced the same charges in a different case last year. He pleaded down to misdemeanor sexual battery in that case and was placed on probation.
This is the third standoff in three days along the Wasatch Front.
On Thursday, a man barricaded himself inside his girlfriend's Midvale apartment after beating her in front of her children. That standoff ended peacefully with the man surrendering.
That same day in Layton, there was another standoff. Thirty-six-year-old Jeffery Cramer called Davis County dispatch saying he was upset with his job situation and was going to hurt someone.
When officers arrived, Cramer walked onto his porch with a shotgun. Police say he shot at them before they returned fire, killing him.
As for Friday's shooting , the deputy who shot Taylor is on administrative leave while the Weber County Attorney's Office investigates the shooting. That's standard procedure in a fatal shooting.
E-mail: sdallof@ksl.com
