CRIME
Body camera footage reveals encounter between officers and shooting suspect
Aug 25, 2022, 1:58 PM
Officers responding to the suspect after he was shoot by an officer. (WVCPD)
(WVCPD)
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — Body camera footage shows the encounter between a shooting suspect and police, leading to an officer shooting him on Aug 7.
In a press release from West Valley City police, dispatchers were called about a man shooting another man at the Carl’s Jr. parking lot at 3468 S. Redwood Road at approximately 1 p.m.
The suspect, identified later as Mitchell Van Halsey, 39, fled the scene on a bicycle to the Indoor Swap Meet at 1500 West, 3500 South.
One West Valley City police officer and three Taylorsville officers encountered Halsey on the sidewalk, according to Roxeanne Vainuku, spokesperson for WVCPD.
Shooting suspect hospitalized after being shot by officer, police say
The WVCPD officer turned on their camera before confronting Halsey. It’s unknown if the Taylorsville officers turned on theirs or had any equipped, as Taylorsville police are in charge of releasing their footage, Vainuku said.
The body camera footage does not have sound for the first 30 seconds because it was in “buffering mode,” Vainuku explains. It’s a setting that records the first 30 seconds of footage after an officer activates their body camera.
“In the video, Mr. Hasley was located on the sidewalk in front of a parked vehicle. The officer positions between that vehicle and a second parked vehicle,” said Brandon Christiansen, Deputy Chief for WVCPD. “We were unable to hear any exchange between the officer and the suspect.”
“However, we can see from the video that the suspect produces a handgun,” Christiansen continues, and the WVC PD officer fires his weapon in response.
The suspect, Mitchell Van Halsey, 39, pulling out a handgun after police encountered him. (WVCPD)
In the unedited video released Wednesday, the four officers cautiously approached Hasley while he was on the ground and kicked his handgun away from him. A Taylorsville officer handcuffed Hasley, and the officers began first aid.
Vainuku said that protocol team one of the Salt Lake City police department is handling the ongoing investigation. After that investigation, WVC PD and an independent board of WVC citizens will review the case.
Hasley was sent to the hospital for his injuries and was released days later. He was booked in the Salt Lake County Jail for aggravated robbery and aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury on Aug. 10.
