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SALT LAKE CITY — A Unified police officer was legally justified in shooting and killing a man who was wielding two katana swords in Cottonwood Heights last Halloween, the Salt Lake County district attorney ruled Friday.
On Oct. 31, Mark Brunson, 38, was shot and killed in Cottonwood Heights in a residential cul-de-sac. The incident began just before 11 p.m. when police responded to a report that Brunson had suffered a head injury from a ceiling fan at his home in Midvale near Fort Union Boulevard and was "intoxicated and very angry," according to District Attorney Sim Gill's final report.
In the 911 call Brunson's wife made, a very agitated Brunson can be heard in the background aggressively yelling. At one point, Brunson is heard in a recording of the call yelling, "I'm going to get shot tonight."
His wife also tells dispatchers that Brunson was seen by doctors three weeks earlier for mental health issues. She then says that Brunson was grabbing his decorative sword. When the dispatcher asked, "Is it like an actual sword?" she responded that she didn't know.
As officers were arriving, they spotted Brunson leaving the home. A short police pursuit ended just over a mile away in Cottonwood Heights. Brunson got out of his car and raised his hands in the air and "paced around, with arms still raised," the report states.
Body camera videos from officers at the scene show Brunson yelling an expletive before going back to his car and reaching into the open door.
"Mr. Brunson exited his vehicle holding two black steel swords, each approximately 27 inches long, turned to face the officers, and began throwing his hands holding the swords in the air," according to the report.
Brunson walked toward the officers "violently" and "aggressively" while "swinging the swords, clashing them together." Gill said the officers could hear that the swords were not Halloween props based, in part, by the metal clanging.
"The suspect had exited the vehicle with what I observed as swords, one in each hand. The suspect was advancing on us. (Unified police officer Leo Lopez and I) were both giving commands to 'drop the swords,'" said Cottonwood Heights police officer Eryn Sustayta.
Because Lopez had his gun drawn, Sustayta drew her Taser. Officers positioned themselves about 40 feet away from Bryson. But when Brunson got within 11 to 13 feet of the officers, Sustayta deployed her Taser at almost the same time Lopez fired his gun twice, according to the report.
"The suspect's lack of compliance and response to anything we were saying was extremely concerning to me. And I saw the size of the swords," she said. "He was being rather aggressive and just coming at us in an aggressive manner where I personally perceived him as I did not think he was going to stop."
"(The swords) were dark and they were long. And he started swinging them like a ninja," he said. "It looked to me like he had intent to hurt us … kill us."
At a press conference on Friday to announce his decision, Gill said he had a difficult conversation with Brunson's family that morning. He called the incident "tragic" because Brunson's wife was trying to get help for him, but the dynamics of the situation changed rapidly when Brunson sped away from the scene while intoxicated and advanced on officers with two swords.
"It is really hard because this is not what she wanted to happen. And this is a tragic outcome," he said. "At the same time, these are dynamic situations that can alter very quickly.
"There's no easy answer here, other than to say we need to continue to redouble and focus our effort and recognize that mental issues are real challenges," Gill continued. "But I think everybody can agree that, regardless of how we get here, this is a tragic outcome."
Gill promised it wouldn't be the last time he holds a press conference to talk about a police shooting involving a person having a mental health crisis, while at the same time renewing his call for more to be done to address the mental health crisis facing the community.
