South Jordan officers found legally justified in shooting, killing man with knife

SOUTH JORDAN — Two South Jordan police officers were legally justified in shooting and killing a man who was armed with a knife in 2024, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Thursday.

What made this case unique was the time it took to take the man into custody and the distance the incident covered. Officers retreated more than 200 steps before firing their guns and police still had to wait nearly half an hour until they could get the knife Marcelo Josue Gutierrez was holding out of his hand.

Gutierrez, 31, was shot on June 15, 2024, after police responded to a report of a suspicious person looking in car windows at Glenmoor Baseball Park, near 4600 West and 9600 South.

When officers Jace Tanaka and Aaron Bass arrived at the scene, they found Gutierrez inside one of the baseball dugouts as a children's team was on the field getting ready to start practice. In body camera videos shown Thursday at a press conference held by Gill to announce the results of his investigation, Gutierrez initially tells the officers he lost his car keys. But within a matter of seconds, he stands up while holding a knife.

"Put the knife down, dude," one officer tells him.

Gutierrez did not follow the officers' orders to drop the knife and "continued to advance" toward the officers. Bass deployed his Taser on Gutierrez, "but it had no effect," according to Gill's final report. Tanaka also used his Taser as the confrontation moved into the parking lot, but it also "had no effect."

The officers continuously back up as Gutierrez slowly walks toward him in the video. Both officers yelled numerous times, "Don't do it" and, "Don't make us do it, man."

"We don't want to shoot you," one of the officers is heard yelling.

Gutierrez then used his knife to puncture a tire on one of the officer's patrol cars, deflating it before resuming to walk toward the officers as they backed up across the parking lot.

"After crossing the parking lot, officer Bass deployed his Taser a second time. After yelling to not tase him, Mr. Gutierrez accelerates toward officer Tanaka. Both officers fired their weapons," the report states.

In body camera videos, after being tased a total of three times with no effect, Gutierrez picks up his pace and appears to begin to jog toward the officers.

"At no time during the approximately 2 minutes and 44 seconds between when Mr. Gutierrez first stood up with the knife and when shots were fired, did Mr. Gutierrez demonstrate any intent to drop the knife, comply with any of the commands given, or surrender," the report says.

Tanaka fired six shots and Bass eight. Gill says Gutierrez was less than 20 feet from Tanaka when he was shot. Despite being shot multiple times, Gutierrez did not go down.

"Despite being visibly injured, Mr. Gutierrez continued to not drop the knife," according to the report.

Gutierrez then walked across the street and eventually sat down on a large rock while still holding the knife. As backup officers arrived, they surrounded Gutierrez, who still refused to put the knife down. During the extended standoff, police continue to plead with Gutierrez to throw the knife away so they can help him.

"You want us to save you, you need to put the knife down," an officer tells him.

"You need us to help you now, just let us help you," Tanaka pleads with him while also wishing to himself, "just drop it."

"You can hear it in their voices, and even as Tanaka is talking to himself, they're genuinely trying to get help to Mr. Gutierrez. But you have somebody who doesn't let go (of the knife) until the very end," Gill said Thursday.

At one point, the officers convince Gutierrez to give them his father's phone number and they were able to call him. But he still did not surrender.

After Gutierrez slumps over onto the ground, backup officers eventually decide to shoot "40mm foam baton rounds" at Gutierrez in an attempt to get him to drop it. Twenty-two minutes after the initial shooting, officers approached Gutierrez with a ballistics shield, at which point Gutierrez is heard saying, "OK, I'll let go of the knife."

The entire interaction with Gutierrez lasted approximately 40 minutes, Gill said. Despite life-saving efforts by police and paramedics, Gutierrez died from his injuries shortly after arriving at a local hospital.

Gill said he met with Gutierrez's parents for about 90 minutes prior to Thursday's press conference. Gutierrez was suffering from mental health challenges, which Gill says is a frequent issue with many police shootings he investigates.

"There is a significant intersection of people who are having mental health challenges," who have interaction with law enforcers, he said.

"I don't like what happened here; this is a tragic loss. I have somebody who is clearly having a mental health issue. But at the same time, I'm also cognizant of the fact of the multiple attempts at less-lethal (force) that those officers deployed," Gill continued.

Gill said "every situation is dynamic," and in this case, he commended the officers for their communication with each other and noted how they tried their Tasers three times and refrained from using their guns again after the initial shooting, even though Gutierrez continued to walk and hold onto his knife.

"You can try to mitigate it, (but) the facts unfold and sometimes that happens," he said of the decision to shoot.

Still, Gill, as he has done before, encouraged every police department to give training to their officers multiple times a year on how to deal with people suffering from a mental health crisis.

"Every agency should have a very articulate protocol of how you deal with somebody who has that mental health issue," he said.

Related:

'We are grieving,' says family of man shot, killed by South Jordan police

South Jordan police shot and killed a man on June 15, 2024, after they say he pulled a knife on officers as they attempted to detain him.

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