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One man is dead and another in jail after two separate domestic violence calls to police yesterday. Officers tell us cases like these may not be rising in numbers, but they are becoming more dangerous.
Talking with police today, we've discovered that domestic violence calls are some of the most difficult to handle. Often times it's because the parties involved know each other and tempers can easily flare up
Det. John Salazar, with the Midvale Police Department, said, "You expect the worst and hope for the best."
The worst happens when someone is killed, like what happened yesterday with the domestic violence standoff in West Valley. The best case scenario is that everyone gets out safely. Also yesterday, a Midvale altercation ended peacefully with a few neighbors shaken up.
But these situations can happen anywhere, to anyone, and police are trained to know that anything can happen at these calls, because there are so many variables.
Financial troubles, emotionally, depression, children, so many variables. We don't know the variables when we go in. We cannot solve their problems in 10 minutes that have been going on for a year to two years," Salazar said.
Lori Roberts, a neighbor to one of the incidents yesterday, said, "We live in a fast-paced world. Get this done now, get this done yesterday, plus a lot of stress in people's lives."
Police say they always arrive with two officers on scene in this type of situation. It's especially important when a neighbor reports the violence, not anyone directly involved. "Then you have more heightened tension because now you are invading their space. They want to solve the problem on their own. They don't need police presence," Salazar said.
And as Roberts learned yesterday, she may have had sharp shooters on her roof and SWAT officers roaming the neighborhood, but it could've ended a lot worse. "I asked if I could close my gate and he said, ‘Yup.' Because this is the way it's supposed to be done. Everybody goes home. Everything's quiet and nobody got hurt."
It could've ended fatally, something West Valley will have to deal with in the coming days.
West Valley Police have identified the man who died yesterday as 40-year-old Richard Jackson. He was shot and killed by an officer after threatening his ex-wife with a knife to her throat.
E-mail: ngonzales @ksl.com
