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SARATOGA SPRINGS — Three Saratoga Springs police officers who shot and killed an armed man trying to break into a random house in January were legally justified in using deadly force, even though the man apparently did not point his gun at police, the Utah County Attorney's Office announced Monday.
Officers Taylor Robertson, Seth Llorens and Daniel Rapkay will not face criminal charges in connection with the shooting death of 50-year-old Christopher Sallee, of Salt Lake City.
The deadly incident unfolded on Jan. 9, about 11:15 p.m., when a Lehi police officer pulled over an SUV in front of Lehi Roller Mills, near 1000 E. Main Street. The driver, Sallee, handed the officer an identification card out of Idaho but did not have a driver's license, registration or proof of insurance, according to Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray's final report.
The officer had his police K-9 walk around the SUV, and the dog indicated there may be drugs in the vehicle. As one officer asked Sallee questions about where he had been, a second officer noticed the SUV's parking lights were not on anymore, the report states.
"The backup officer opened Sallee's front passenger-side door and told Sallee to 'put it back in park.' Instead, Sallee sped off," according to the report.
The Lehi officers pursued Sallee until he crossed into Saratoga Springs, at which time officers from Saratoga Springs continued chasing him. Several minutes later, a commanding officer terminated the pursuit and the officers turned off their emergency lights and sirens. "Officers, nevertheless, continued to either look for Sallee or follow him from a distance without lights and sirens — what I will refer to as a 'soft pursuit,'" Gray states in his report.
Sallee went into Bluffdale just past Camp Williams on Redwood Road before turning around and heading back to Saratoga Springs. He was spotted by Robertson, who resumed the chase and informed dispatchers that Sallee's two passenger-side tires were flat, the report states.
"Just over a minute later — after reporting that Sallee had completely lost his rubber tires — officer Robertson terminated the hard pursuit. While continuing to throw items out his window, Sallee slowed to 45 mph, then to 35 mph. During Sallee's southbound travel on Redwood Road, officers reported seeing Sallee at times drive in the wrong lane of travel, drive into the path of a semitruck for a time, and narrowly miss a head-on collision at another point," according to the report.
Officers followed Sallee from a distance as he drove into a residential area east of Redwood Road in the Dalmore Meadows subdivision, stopped at the end of a dead-end road and ran from the vehicle, the report states. He ran to a nearby house and pounded on the door while yelling for "help," the report states.
"With gun drawn, officer Llorens quickly advanced toward the front porch steps while repeatedly shouting at Sallee to show his hands. Instead, Sallee turned facing officer Llorens, descended the front-porch steps with his right hand behind his back, then turned and walked back up the stairs," according to the report.
All three officers then approached Sallee with their guns drawn and yelled at him multiple times to show his hands. The officers did not know at that point that Sallee was holding a handgun, the report states.
"Some 15-seconds into the officers' verbal encounter with Sallee, they saw the gun he had been concealing from them. On seeing it, the officers repeatedly yelled at him to drop the gun and get on the ground or he would be shot. But Sallee ignored their clear commands. While crouching down, Sallee looked back at the officers, all the while trying to cover his head with his left arm. Then, turning his gaze to the house, Sallee broke the window on the east side of the door with the butt of his gun — an apparent attempt to enter the home. Upon seeing this, all three officers fired their weapons at Sallee. At least 10 rounds hit him," according to the report.
Gray notes that the officers did not shoot when they first saw Sallee's gun, and that their actions were legally justified even though he never appeared to point his gun directly at them.
"Only when Sallee busted the home's front window with the butt of his gun — some seven seconds after their first demand that he drop the gun — did the officers fire at him. They reasonably believed that he not only represented a serious danger to them, but also to any occupants inside the house, justifying their use of deadly force," his report states.
"The mere fact that Sallee did not appear to point the gun at the subject officers or anyone else does not undermine the reasonableness of their use of deadly force," he concluded.
Shortly after the incident, Saratoga Springs Police Chief Andrew Burton confirmed there were children in the house at the time of the attempted break-in.
"Had he gained entry, we may have seen something much worse than we had. He's an armed individual, frantic. He probably would have taken (the family) hostage. It's a family with children. And it would have been a very ugly situation," the chief said in January. "I think it's important to remember that the job officers do is to protect the public. And in this case, I think it was accomplished. I think we would have possibly had a very dire situation had he gained entry."
