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SALT LAKE CITY — The shooting by police of a man allegedly holding a woman at knifepoint in Taylorsville last month was justified, according to the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.
Tina Martinez and her live-in boyfriend, Jose Luis Rodriquez-Castro, got in an argument Dec. 20 over why she was "doing this" to him, although it is unclear what "this" was. The two were sitting in Rodriguez-Castro's vehicle in a friend's driveway.
After a few minutes, Martinez told Rodriquez-Castro she was going to be late for her 9 a.m. appointment at Workforce Services, but the man would not exit the vehicle, according to D.A. documents. Martinez left for Workforce Services with Rodriquez-Castro still in the car, demanding she answer his questions.
When Martinez parked at Workforce Services, Rodriquez-Castro refused to allow her to exit the vehicle. She noticed he had a knife and called her sister, at which point family members alerted police.
Officer Scott Lloyd with the Unified Police Department responded to the call and attempted to talk Rodriquez-Castro into releasing Martinez, who was at that point "hysterical." Rodriquez-Castro became more agitated, holding a knife to Martinez's throat. Lloyd told Rodriquez-Castro several times to drop the knife, but he did not comply.
Rodriquez-Castro began moving his knife toward Martinez's throat, at which point Lloyd began shooting, according to documents. He continued to shoot until Rodriquez-Castro's body fell backward.
The D.A.'s office found Martinez's story and Lloyd's were corroborated by each other's statements and those of witnesses in the area, according to Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. A knife with traces of blood and tissue was found in the car, a brown Chevy suburban. Ten bullets were recovered at the scene.
