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STANSBURY PARK, Tooele County — When Nicholas McGehee stepped out of his front door and raised his gun, Tooele County Sheriff's Sgt. Eli Wayman believed he was "looking for the shot."
McGehee never spoke, but from the way he carried himself and handled his weapon it appeared to Wayman that he had military or law enforcement training. Fearing that McGehee would shoot him, then come after another officer and a woman who had fled the home moments earlier, Wayman fired three shots with an AR-15, shooting McGehee once through the chest.
In a report released Friday, Tooele County Attorney Scott Broadhead determined that the Dec. 28 shooting was legally justified, saying McGehee posed an immediate threat to the officers and to Kathryn McGehee, his wife, who had called police.
McGehee did not respond to Wayman's repeated instruction to put the gun down, instead bracing himself against the house and apparently preparing to fire, Broadhead said in the report.
McGehee, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, served two tours in Iraq and had received a Purple Heart and a number of other military honors, according to his obituary. He was working as an Army recruiter in Utah.
Police had responded to the McGehees' Stansbury Park home early that day after his wife called 911. Kathryn McGehee had initially called at 4:07 a.m. and hung up, but spoke with dispatchers who called back, according to the report.
Kathryn McGehee told dispatchers her husband was heavily intoxicated, had fallen and broken a glass, and then cut his foot on it. He was bleeding profusely. She suspected he needed stitches, but he was refusing to get in the car and get medical treatment.
"(Nicholas) McGehee was in pain from the gash on his foot, but was refusing to stay off his foot. Kathryn was pleading with her husband to stop walking around and to sit still so she could care for his foot," the report indicates.
At 4:14 a.m. McGehee called 911 again, saying her husband was armed with a shotgun and waiting at the front door. She opened the garage door to give police another way into the home, told dispatchers the layout of the home and where her husband was, pleading with him to give her the gun.
Wayman arrived outside the home, 34 Merion Dr., at 4:15 a.m., according to the report. The lights on his vehicle weren't on because he had been called to a medical scene, but upon learning that Nicholas McGehee was armed with a shotgun, he grabbed his AR-15.
Wayman and Utah Highway Patrol trooper Andy Prescott positioned themselves on both sides of the garage door. Able to see Nicholas McGehee with his shotgun through the front window, Wayman told dispatchers to have Kathryn McGehee get out of the house.
Kathryn McGehee came out the front door and down the steps to where the officers were waiting and was taken to Prescott's vehicle, parked down the street, as her husband came to the open door with the shotgun. When Wayman told the man to put the gun down and talk to him, Nicholas McGehee slammed the door closed.
Wayman fell back to his car, where he could see McGehee moving "frantically" through the house before he stepped back out onto the front porch holding a handgun at a "low ready" position. From behind the police vehicle, Wayman saw McGehee braced against the house and aiming at him, the report states.
I felt my life was in danger. I felt (Prescott's) was in danger. I know his wife was in danger inside as well as outside. I needed to stop this guy. He's intent on hurting somebody.
–Sgt. Eli Wayman, Tooele County Sheriff's Office
Wayman pointed the AR-15 at McGehee, ordering him to "put the gun down, show me your hands." With McGehee's handgun still aimed at him, Wayman fired.
Wayman told investigators that his final thoughts before he pulled the trigger were that if McGehee fired, "I die right there and he comes and gets my rifle and then engages (Prescott)."
"I felt my life was in danger. I felt (Prescott's) was in danger. I know his wife was in danger inside as well as outside. I needed to stop this guy. He's intent on hurting somebody."
Paramedics responding to the initial medical call gave immediate aid, but McGehee was pronounced dead at the scene from a single gunshot to the chest.
In the report, Broadhead noted that the sergeant didn't identify himself verbally as a police officer, though he was visible in his uniform and had arrived in a marked police vehicle.
Though doing so is advised by Utah law, it was not "an important factor" in justifying use of deadly force, Broadhead said.
The report also notes that Wayman was wearing a body camera that had been issued to him one or two weeks before. Wayman reportedly tried to turn on the camera when he arrived, but it didn't turn on.
McGehee was the 14th man killed by police officers in Utah during 2014. Since his death, three more men have been shot and killed in confrontations with officers. Investigators have determined that all of the shootings last year were legally justified, with the exception of three that are still being reviewed.
