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SALT LAKE CITY — Investigators on Saturday released the identities of two men shot and killed by police Friday in separate incidents.
Salt Lake police, however, are offering very few details about what led officers to shoot and kill Cody Paris Belgard, 30, about 8 p.m. at 800 N. Sir Michael Drive (1955 West) in Salt Lake City.
West Valley police are investigating the shooting death. Court records show Belgard, of Salt Lake City, had an arrest record related to minor drug offenses.
The second fatal police shooting occurred in Ogden. Police say he was shot after attacking officers with a rock. He was identified Saturday as a convicted felon with "white supremacist prison gang" tattoos.
Ogden Police Chief Randy Watt said Christopher William Parrish, 33, came at officers in a violent, threatening manner prompting officers to take decisive action to stop the threat to protect their safety.
Speaking to reporters, Watt explained that a patrol officer who happened to be at a Walmart at 1959 Wall Ave. on an unrelated matter was approached by two individuals who reported that a man was acting "suspicious, manic and threatening" to people in the area of the store. The witnesses provided a description of the man and a vehicle.
The officer observed the vehicle leaving the Walmart parking lot, followed the car and conducted a traffic stop in the 200 west block of 20th Street and approached the vehicle. The officer tried to identify the driver and asked him to exit the vehicle. Instead, the man drove off rapidly but ended up on the shoulder of the road with the vehicle disabled.
The driver got out of the vehicle and fled on foot across 20th Street and ran away as officers gave chase.
"He entered a yard on the south side of west 21st Street, picked up a softball-sized rock and charged the officers," Watt said. "The officers deployed two Tasers, but the Tasers were ineffective and the individual continued to rapidly and violently attack the officers with the rock."
"When the Tasers failed, the officers used their service firearms to stop this violent attack by the suspect," he added. "Once the suspect was down, Ogden Fire Department paramedics attempted to treat the subject but it was to no avail and the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene."
No police officers were injured, Watt said.
Using fingerprint analysis, investigators were able to identify Parrish, a paroled fugitive from Arizona with a significant felony record in Oregon and Arizona, including crimes of violence and lengthy prison stays, according to the chief.
Parrish had two felony burglary convictions and a felony conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He had tattoos indicating involvement in a "white supremacist prison gang" called Supreme Allied Warriors as well as the Secret Aryan Culture, Watt said.
The officers involved in the incident are on paid administrative leave pending the completion of the internal affairs investigation and external case review, Watt noted. No motive for the suspect's behavior has been determined as of yet, he said.
"It's unfortunate that these kinds of events occur, but they do and such results are experienced," Watt said, adding that body camera footage of the incident is being reviewed.
(Parrish) had approached some people in the Walmart and gave some indications that he wanted to fight people and was acting strange enough that (witnesses) felt compelled to report the behavior to the police, Watt said.
An autopsy was conducted Saturday and a toxicology report is expected to take at least six weeks, he said. Police are interviewing the person who owned the car the that Parrish was driving, which they said was borrowed lawfully from an acquaintance.
The Weber County Attorney's Office will lead the investigation into the shooting death.
