SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ Roosevelt Police Chief Cecil Gurr was shot and killed Friday night while trying to arrest a suspect in a domestic dispute.
Gurr was among the officers who responded to a report of a man beating a woman at about 8:30 p.m. in a convenience store parking lot. The officers surrounded the couple's pickup truck and the man stepped out carrying a rifle, police said in a statement released Saturday morning.
The man began shooting at the officers, who returned the fire, police said.
After allegedly killing the police chief, the man got back into the truck and forced the woman to drive away. Police chased the car, stopping it about five blocks from the scene, according to the statement.
After struggling with police, Lee Roy Wood, 35, of Vernal, was arrested on state and federal parole violations. The Uintah County Attorney's Office is reviewing possible charges against Wood for Gurr's death, said Chief Deputy County Attorney Ken Wallentine. No decision is expected before midweek.
The police were not releasing information about Wood's past criminal record.
Wood was not injured in the shootout, said Sgt. Steve Hatzidakis. The woman also was not injured as a result of the shooting, but may have been hurt during the alleged domestic dispute. The relationship between the two was not yet clear Saturday.
Gurr, 50, had been police chief since the mid-1970s and was one of the longest-serving police chiefs in Utah, Hatzidakis said. He was active in church and community organizations.
"He was a good man. He was a credit to law enforcement," Hatzidakis said. "It's a terrible loss."
Gurr's father said the police chief had always cared about helping those around him.
"He wanted to help everybody. Anybody who knows him would say the same thing," said Beryl Gurr. "Everyone respected him and he respected everyone."
Rep. Gordon Snow, R-Roosevelt, who was Gurr's neighbor until four years ago, served with the police chief as a Boy Scout leader and was Gurr's one-time bishop in the Roosevelt 8th Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"He was just a good, no-nonsense, down-to-Earth, dedicated father," Snow said. "If his boys were in Little League, he was a Little League leader. If they were in Scouts, he was a Scout leader. They are a very close, tight-knit family, and Cecil reflected that in all he did.
"It's going to be a very big challenge for all of us to get over this."
Roosevelt, a city of 4,000, is about 100 miles east of Salt Lake City.
Gurr was the second Utah police chief to die in a week. Sam Dawson, chief of the Sandy Police Department, was killed in a motorcycle accident Monday.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV 07-07-01 1613MDT
