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FARMINGTON — While Joseph Anthony Manhard held a Farmington family hostage inside their own home for nearly seven hours, he took drugs and appeared to be high to the homeowners before he finally agreed to walk outside the house, according to court documents.
That's when Manhard, 32, was shot and killed by a sniper from the Salt Lake police SWAT team.
While the investigation into the officer-involved shooting remained ongoing Friday, some additional pieces of information about what happened during the frightening ordeal were revealed this week in recently unsealed court documents.
On Sept. 9, the day before he broke into the Farmington house in the middle of the night, Manhard was charged in 2nd District Court with aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies, and a no-bail warrant was issued for his arrest. Later that afternoon, Manhard was spotted outside a residence in Clearfield, but by the time police arrived, he was gone.
Then about 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 10, Manhard returned to the same Clearfield residence. This time, responding officers spotted Manhard and gave chase.
Manhard fled into the Freeport Center, where police later found his abandoned vehicle. While investigating that scene, emergency dispatchers received a 911 call from a woman about a quarter-mile away who said she had been carjacked at gunpoint. The woman told police that Manhard tried to take her car and then fired a round through the window when she initially resisted, according to police. The woman, uninjured, got out of her car and Manhard drove off.
The stolen vehicle was spotted a short time later by police in the area of 800 N. Main in Clearfield. Manhard ran one officer off the road while trying to avoid being captured, according to police. He then fled on I-15 where Utah Highway Patrol troopers and Davis County sheriff's deputies began another chase.
Officers were able to spike the fleeing vehicle's tires on the freeway near Shepard Lane in Farmington. He continued driving on flat tires until he reached Lund Lane in Farmington, and then got out of the car, jumped over freeway barriers and ran into a nearby neighborhood, police said.
The Davis County SWAT team was called as police began a door-to-door search looking for Manhard. As police were looking, they heard a gunshot and found a bullet hole in the window of a Farmington house. No one was injured and the circumstances surrounding that shot have not yet been released.
At some point between 2:15 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., Manhard — who police believe was trying to get into any home he could — found an open basement window at 1645 S. Tuscany Grove Circle.
There were initially five people inside the house when Manhard entered. But one of the daughters was able to get out of the house right away through a basement window. A short time later, Manhard allowed the father of the family to leave "so he could go to work," according to a search warrant affidavit.
Once outside the home, the two family members contacted police who were already searching the area and directed them toward their house where Manhard continued to hold the mother of the family, her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend hostage at gunpoint, the warrant states.
During the time the family was being held captive, "it was reported that Joseph would smoke something off of tin foil while in the home. He appeared to be high to the hostages," according to the affidavit.
Police surrounded the home, including SWAT team members who were called in from outside agencies such as Salt Lake police. Hostage negotiators attempted to talk Manhard into surrendering for hours.
As police continued to try and talk to Manhard, negotiators "were able to convince him to come out the front door of the home with the hostages," the affidavit states. Police say that was just after 9 a.m.
"When Joseph was leaving the home through the front door, he was shot by a SWAT team member that was on scene," according to the warrant. "The three hostages were escorted away from the home."
The court documents do not say what prompted the officer to shoot or whether Manhard pointed his gun at police or the family, or if he fired any shots. But according to a GoFundMe campaign set up for the family, there were multiple bullet holes in the home, in addition to broken windows and "kicked down doors."
The homeowner praised the actions of law enforcers in a Facebook post.
"To our law enforcement, it's with tears streaming down my face that I THANK YOU for your diligence in what seemed to be eternity," the mother wrote. "YOU saved our lives. There are no words to adequately express my sincere gratitude for you now and forever. We are blessed."
"We are so grateful for the police, SWAT, and the crisis hotline," one of the daughters added in another post. "We are especially grateful to the brave man who saved our lives in the end."
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown and Mayor Erin Mendenhall also issued statements following the incident, praising the actions of the SWAT officer.
"Based on the preliminary investigation, our officer saved the lives of several hostages," Brown said. "I stand by and support our officer's decision."
"Their training and professionalism helped them to act with selflessness and prevent tragic events," Mendenhall added, speaking of all the Salt Lake officers who responded to Davis County.
Farmington Police Chief Wayne Hansen said Thursday that details about what prompted the officer to shoot will be part of the investigation conducted by the Davis County officer-involved shooting protocol team, which is made up of officers from several law enforcement agencies and overseen by the Davis County Attorney's Office. There was no time estimate Friday of when that report would be completed.
A camera set up on a tripod to record the events from the sniper's point of view was not turned on, according to Brown. The officer believed the camera was on, but in fact turned it on only after the shooting, believing at that point that he was turning it off, the chief said. The camera recorded the aftermath of the shooting. As of Friday, police have not publicly released that video.
"In this incident, there is no (video) from either the sniper operator or the spotter that captured the moments immediately leading up to the use of deadly force or the actual use of deadly force," Brown said.
After the shooting, police obtained a search warrant to enter the home and retrieve items that belonged to Manhard. They found a Glock 43 handgun loaded with three rounds, heroin and drug paraphernalia, and four cellphones, the warrant states.
