Sandy MaloneSalt Lake City, UT – Police fatally shot a man suspected in multiple armed robberies on Monday after he led them on a chase that ended with a crash and a gun battle on a busy street in Salt Lake City (video below).
One officer was struck after the suspect opened fire, and the suspect was subsequently destroyed.
At a press conference, Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown and Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera walked reporters through the series of events that led up to the final hail of gunfire, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Sheriff Rivera said the first robbery, at a Holiday Oil gas station in Taylorsville, was reported to police at 10:06 a.m.
Then gunfire was reported in a robbery at a 7-Eleven in Millcreek at about 10:37 a.m., the sheriff said.
After more gunfire was reported at 10:42 a.m. near West Temple and 500 South, officers began chasing a white pickup truck, according to the Sale Lake Tribune.
Officers pursued the truck from downtown Salt Lake City south on State Street.
Witnesses told the Salt Lake Tribune they heard gunfire being exchanged as the chase, which included at least 20 police vehicles, passed by them.
Chief Brown told reporters that the suspect was leaning out of the pickup truck shooting a rifle at police.
The chief said officers debated calling off the chase when the suspect’s driving became too dangerous, but they ultimately decided to continue the pursuit because the driver posed too much of a threat to the public for them to let him escape, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The truck finally crashed into an alteration shop near 3300 South and State Street, and multiple officers opened fire.
A video filmed by a witness who was just feet away when the pickup truck smashed into the building was posted to social media right after the incident.
The driver of the car filming the altercation slammed their own vehicle into reverse and backed away a safer distance when the gunfire began, the video showed.
Witnesses told the Salt Lake Tribune they would estimate that more than 300 shots has been fired in the final gun battle between the driver of the truck and police.
Sheriff Rivera said the driver of the pickup truck died at the scene, but she could not say whether he had died from an officer’s bullet or his own.
There were visible bullet holes in the truck, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
One officer was in injured by a ricochet during the gunfight, but is expected to survive.
Watch the gunfight in the video below: