- Officer William Barnett was cleared of charges for firing at a vehicle.
- The incident occurred Dec. 13 after shots were allegedly fired into a crowd by a passenger in a moving vehicle.
- Barnett's shot hit a parked car; no injuries were reported, and the gunman remains at large.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City police officer who fired a single round at a vehicle after a passenger allegedly fired several rounds into a crowd will not face criminal charges.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office announced Friday that officer William Barnett was legally justified in using deadly force on Dec. 13.
On that day, Salt Lake City police were called to a possible fight about 3 a.m. near 149 W. Pierpont Ave. after receiving a 911 call from a security guard. Moments later, police received another call from a woman down the street from that address, "then a male came on the line and stated that everyone at the nightclub had guns," according to Gill's report.
Responding officers began walking down Pierpont Avenue from both ends of the street. About 10 minutes later, a four-door car sped out of a parking lot "while a rear passenger-side passenger leaned out and fired multiple handgun rounds," the report states.
"At first, I figured he was gonna yell something," an officer with Barnett told investigators about the alleged gunman. "And then I hear about five or six pops, which were gunshots."
"We're like, 'What's he doing?' He's driving and all of a sudden, 'boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,'" said the security guard who was with the officers. "All I saw was a flash of the muzzle."
Barnett declined to be interviewed for the district attorney's investigation. But according to his body-camera video, Barnett is heard telling dispatchers shortly after firing a round, "No shots were fired at officers; they were at the crowd. However, I had one sight picture and fired one round," the report states.
He is later heard on video telling another officer, "I don't know if I hit anybody, but he was shooting several rounds," Gill's report states. "I saw a male reach out, start swinging three or four rounds that way. So we ducked back. I pulled my gun. He looked like he was still swinging this way. So I shot from this direction approximately."
Investigators determined that Barnett's shot hit a parked vehicle. Detectives found five shell casings in the area of the fleeing vehicle. The gunman hit two parked vehicles, including one belonging to the security guard, and one round "impacted behind the officers and to their left," according to the report. No injuries were reported.
"We further believe it is reasonable to infer that officer Barnett believed he needed to use deadly force to prevent death or serious injury to himself and/or others and that such a belief was reasonable," the report states.
As of Monday, police were still looking for the gunman.
