West Valley police shoot, critically injure burglary suspect

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

WEST VALLEY CITY — A suspected burglar was shot by West Valley police early Monday.

The 25-year-old man was taken to a local hospital in critical condition where he underwent surgery, according to West Valley police.

UPDATE: Police say several people reported a man breaking windows in homes. When police got here, they say they made contact with the man, tried to use a taser, which was unsuccessful, and an officer shot the man. They say he was awake and talking when he went to the hospital. pic.twitter.com/Io0jkeQkzF
— Sean Moody (@SeanMoodyPhoto) May 10, 2021

The incident began about 1:30 a.m. when emergency dispatchers received multiple calls of a man using a metal object to break windows and try to enter homes in the area of 3850 South and 4800 West, according to police. Investigators believe the man broke the windows of at least two houses but did not enter them, said West Valley police spokeswoman Roxeanne Vainuku. Several vehicles parked on the street were also damaged.

When officers arrived in the area, they spotted a man holding a crowbar and some type of altercation ensued that resulted in one officer unsuccessfully deploying a Taser before the man was shot by a second officer, according to police. Additional details about what prompted the shooting were not released Monday.

The officer who fired his gun was placed on standard paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the shooting, which was being conducted by Unified police.

Contributing: Sean Moody, KSL TV; Jacob Klopfenstein, KSL.com; Pat Reavy, KSL.com