Body-cam captures officer-involved shooting, chief says


7 photos
Save Story

Show 2 more videos

Leer en español

Estimated read time: 4-5 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake police officer investigating a suspicious vehicle at a 7-Eleven ended up shooting a man early Tuesday.

Salvador M. Flores, 30, of Salt Lake City, was originally reported to be in extremely critical condition. Police later said he is expected to survive his injuries.

About 3:30 a.m., someone called police reporting a suspicious white truck in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, 535 E. 1700 South, and said the driver appeared to be casing the store to rob it, said Salt Lake Police Sgt. Robin Heiden.

Officers responding to the scene noticed a truck with Utah license plates matching the suspect vehicle's description near 1135 S. State and pulled the vehicle over. Two officers made initial contact with the driver.

Investigators were still trying to determine exactly what happened at that point that led to the shooting.

The driver was asked to get out of his vehicle by officers, Heiden said. As soon as he stepped out, the man started to resist with the officers and a gun was pulled out, she said. The officers were believed to be in very close proximity to Flores at that time, Heiden said.

An officer fired multiple rounds, striking Flores twice in the torso. After the shooting, one of the police officers got a medical bag from his patrol car and began working on him even before paramedics arrived, she said.


It appears an individual who was intent on shooting an officer pulled a gun on several of my officers and actually made the attempt to try and injure one of my officers with that firearm.

–Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank


"It appears an individual who was intent on shooting an officer pulled a gun on several of my officers and actually made the attempt to try and injure one of my officers with that firearm," Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank told KSL Newsradio's "Doug Wright Show."

"Unfortunately, one of my officers was forced to use deadly force in the line of duty," he said.

Nearby, two handguns that the driver was carrying were found in the street.

Both officers were wearing body cameras that were recording during the incident.

"We do have the entire thing on video and we'll probably be in the process of releasing that in the not too distant future," Burbank said.

The names of the officers involved were not immediately released.

A woman who was in the passenger seat of the truck was not injured. Amal Hourieh, 28, of Salt Lake City, was taken to Salt Lake police headquarters for questioning and later arrested on outstanding warrants. Court records show she was charged with numerous counts of felony prescription forgery, identity theft and drug possession in October in multiple cases and recently failed to show up for a court hearing on all of them.

The incident marks the second officer-involved shooting for Salt Lake police this year. In the first, an officer shot and killed a man after he attacked the officer with a shovel. The shooting was determined to be legally justified by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.

Utah state court records show Flores was convicted last year on amended charges of attempted possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person and attempted drug possession. An arrest warrant was issued, however, after he failed to show up for sentencing.

He was also convicted on a federal firearms charge in 2007 but was sentenced to time already served, according to court records.

In that incident, police pulled Flores over and found he had a knife clipped to his belt and two syringes in his pocket, according to charging documents.

Flores also had a warrant out for his arrest from Salt Lake Justice Court for charges of assault in a domestic violence-related event from 2014.

According to court records, Flores used to go by the name Salvador Flores Miranda. Under that name, he was convicted of burglary, a second-degree felony, in 2007 in Summit County. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail and a suspended one-to-15-year prison sentence, but was later found to be in violation of his probation, according to court records.

In 2009, he was convicted of aggravated assault and several other felonies were dismissed, including two counts of aggravated kidnapping. On the day his trial was to begin, he failed to show up to court. He was later taken into custody and a plea deal was arranged.

Contributing: Sandra Yi

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Pat Reavy

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast