Unified officer was legally justified in killing man in Kearns, D.A. concludes

SALT LAKE CITY — A Unified police officer who shot and killed a man who prosecutors say was pointing a gun at him as he ran away from the officer, was determined Friday to be legally justified in using deadly force.

The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office released its final report Friday into the fatal shooting of Andrew Shane Gwynn, 30, on Aug. 4 by Unified officer Leopoldo Lopez.

Lopez was on patrol about 5:10 a.m. in the Kearns area when he spotted a car being driven erratically. The driver fled from Lopez, but he was able to get the license plate number and went to the registered owner's home.

Once there, Lopez spotted Gwynn walking in the residential area and stopped him to see if it was the person he was looking for. Gwynn was sweating more than the outside temperature seemed to warrant, Lopez later told investigators, his eyes were wide and he was wearing black rubber gloves that were rolled part way down his hands, according to the report.

Lopez attempted to stop Gwynn, but he refused to talk to the officer.

"I haven't done anything wrong. You don't have any reason to stop me," he told the officer, while accusing the officer of "profiling," the report states.

Lopez countered to Gwynn that since he was a white man in a predominantly white neighborhood, he wasn't being racially profiled. He said given the hour and Gwynn's appearance, he wanted to ask some questions.

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The officer would later state for District Attorney Sim Gill's report that "the situation didn't feel right to him," and Gwynn was acting like someone who had just stolen something.

Gwynn refused to give Lopez his name, and when the officer said he was going to pat Gwynn down for weapons, he replied, "No, you're not," according to the report.

As he continued to disobey the officer's orders, Lopez went back to his patrol car to update dispatchers on his status. As he did so, Gwynn ran.

Lopez chased after Gwynn. As he was running, he saw Gwynn's arms reach in front of his body, the report states. Gwynn then fully extended his right arm and pointed a gun back at Lopez as he was running, and stated, "Get the (expletive) back," according to the report.

As they continued running, and as Gwynn stepped into a lit area, Lopez saw him "squeezing the grip of his gun," the report states. The officer believed he was within 5 feet of Gwynn at that time.

"He's going to shoot me. ... He's going to fire," Lopez thought to himself, according to the report.

Lopez said because he feared he was about to be shot and killed, he grabbed his gun and shot at Gwynn three times, the report states.

Lopez said because of the urgency of the situation, he did not have time to order Gwynn to "drop the gun."

"There was no time to do anything but shoot," he told investigators in the report.

After Gwynn fell to the ground, Lopez said he continued to try and reach for his gun before he stopped moving, the report states.

When the first backup sergeant arrived on scene, Lopez told him, "That happened so fast, he didn't give me a choice."

Gwynn's gun was located on the ground by a backup officer who noted that "the hammer was cocked back in the firing position," the report states. An investigation further determined that a round was in the gun's chamber, and that Gwynn apparently tried to pull the trigger but the gun's safety was still on.

If Gwynn had been able to fire, it would have likely resulted in Lopez's death, thus making the officer's use of deadly force justified, according to Gill's report.

Lopez had not been issued a body camera and was not wearing one at the time. Currently, only a third of the Unified Police Department's patrol units are equipped with the cameras.

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