Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SMITHFIELD, Cache County — A popular Smithfield police officer and resident was shot at by an unknown gunman Sunday night.
"He's more surprised about this than anyone," said Smithfield Police Chief Johnny McCoy. "He's worked as a fireman in the past, an EMT. He works on a part-time basis with the Department of Natural Resources over at Bear Lake. He's very much engaged with the community. He's extremely well-liked by the community. And to have something like this happen is really concerning for everybody."
About 8 p.m. Sunday, Smithfield animal control officer Frank Keepers was on his front porch when a brown Chevy pickup truck with two people inside drove up.
"This kid reaches out of the truck, draws his hand out, looks at me and fires something," Keepers said. "And he kind of snickered and laughed when he did it, and then they drove off"
One shot was fired, but Keepers wasn't injured.Several neighbors told police they heard the loud gunshot.
The bullet had not been located as of Wednesday, but investigators believe it was a real firearm.
"It really scared the daylights out of me," Keepers said.
This kid reaches out of the truck, draws his hand out, looks at me and fires something.
–Frank Keepers, Smithfield PD
As the truck sped off up Smithfield Canyon Road, Keepers and another officer tried to chase it down, but they soon lost it.
Keepers describes the shooter as a 17- to 19-year-old male with long, scraggly hair. He did not get a look at the driver. The truck they were driving had its rear tires lifted and a loud exhaust, Keepers said.
Keepers has been with the department for over five years. As of Wednesday, investigators had no idea why someone would want to target him.
"It's hard to tell at this point until we can find the person and actually talk to them and learn what their intent was. Obviously we're all kind of on edge," McCoy said. "It does cause us a concern that there might be some type of trend, we don't know. It's hard to pinpoint why this happened."
McCoy does not believe the shooting was in relation to the recent shooting of a man at Cache Valley Hospital. He said there had been no specific threats to the police department since that incident. "The threats come here and there but nothing like this," he noted.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 435-563-8501 or email the chief at jmccoy@smithfieldpd.net.
