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OGDEN — A man who officers shot and killed after he fired a weapon at them Tuesday morning was out on parole and was not legally allowed to have a gun, police said Wednesday.
Ogden Police Chief Eric Young identified the man as Alex Lopez, 23, of Washington Terrace. It was the second fatal police shooting in Ogden in a week.
The chain of events began when officers responded to a pair of reports of a disturbance outside of a bar on 25th Street near 100 East shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Both callers said there was a fight where a "man might be assaulting a woman" in the business' parking lot, and that the man had a handgun, Young said.
The individual fled in a black Lincoln SUV. Officers quickly located the vehicle near 200 East and 17th Street, but the individual fled an attempted traffic stop in the area. Officers found the vehicle again near 700 East and 8th Street, Ogden Deputy Police Chief Jake Sube said on Tuesday.
Lopez got out of the SUV and began to fire a handgun at a pair of officers before they were able to exit their squad cars, Young said.
"The officers exited their vehicles, and two of the vehicles were struck by the gunfire," he said. "The officer who was out in front and initiated the stop withdrew his service pistol and returned fire.
Lopez was shot at least once and was pronounced dead at the scene. The two officers who were shot at were not injured.
Young added there was a passenger in the SUV who fled the scene shortly before the shootout. That individual has not been located. Less than an hour after the ordeal, the owner of the SUV called police to report that their vehicle had been stolen.
The Weber-Morgan Critical Incident Task Force is investigating the fatal police shooting. The officer who shot and killed the man was placed on administrative leave pending the result of the investigation, per police protocol.
Court records show Lopez pleaded guilty in 2nd District Court to four counts of illegally discharging a firearm in 2019, two second-degree and two third-degree felonies. He was sentenced to serve time in Utah State Prison before he was paroled shortly after, Young said. He said Lopez served more time in prison after he violated his parole before he was released again before the end of 2021.
Lopez was still on parole at the time of the incident, according to Utah Department of Corrections records.
"I don't know where he got the gun; he was not allowed," Young said. "He was already a convicted felon on four counts, and also on parole, so he was absolutely illegally in possession of that firearm."
A second Ogden police shooting death occurred one week earlier.
On June 6, Brian Dee Simonton, 37, was shot and killed in a shootout with officers responding to a report that the man was violating a protective order and acting strange at an apartment complex. An officer wounded in the shootout was released from a hospital the following day. He was struck in the lower arm by a bullet that traveled up through his arm and grazed him in the chest, although it didn't enter his chest.
Eight officers from that incident were placed on administrative leave, but Sube said he does not believe having nine officers on leave will impact the department's service.
"These incidents have an undeniable impact on both the officers and the community," Sube said Tuesday. "We are aware of the emotional toll that they take."
