NewsLocal News

Actions

Unified Police identify man shot and killed in Riverton after holding his mother at knifepoint

Posted at 8:26 AM, Oct 22, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-22 21:31:51-04

RIVERTON, Utah — Unified Police officers shot and killed a man in Riverton Monday morning after being called to a report of domestic violence.

Officers responded to a home in the area of 1400 West and Stone Ridge Lane around 6:40 a.m.

Neighbors said they could hear the man angrily yelling outside, at the same time officers say he was holding his mother at knifepoint.

The noises were just feet from Kellie Thompson's backyard.

"The voices kept getting louder and louder," Thompson said, "And I could tell that the voice was pretty angry, upset about something."

Her husband could tell the noises were coming from the home behind theirs.

"He could hear the yelling, yelling and right towards the end he just heard him say, 'I am God,' and then right after that, there was a shot," Thompson said.

The shot they heard was police firing and killing 26-year-old Jason Robert Whittle in the driveway of the home.

"They did find a male holding a female by the neck, with a knife to her neck," Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said.

Investigators later determined that woman was Whittle's mother, who they said lives in the home.

According to neighbors and police, Whittle did not live in the home, though several neighbors said they'd seen police respond to multiple calls there.