SPANISH FORK, Utah — After two different officer-involved shootings occurred this weekend, where one man was left dead and another hospitalized, FOX 13 News is taking a look at the training police receive when it comes to de-escalation and other scenarios.
"Most law enforcement officers are never going to be in a situation where they actually have to pull a trigger," said Sgt. Spencer Cannon with the Utah County Sheriff's Office.
But it does happen, and data shows the likelihood of being shot by police in Utah is greater than the national average.
Two such incidents occurred this past weekend — one on Saturday in Payson where a man was shot and injured, and one in Taylorsville where officers shot and killed 33-year-old Foueti Afeaki after a domestic violence incident. Police say he pulled out a handgun while talking to the responding officers.
"We need to be prepared for those kinds of circumstances. We have to know not only when we’re justified in using deadly force and what the law says about that, [but] we have to know how to do it in the best way we can to bring about the best possible outcome," Cannon said.
Saturday's non-fatal incident began when police responded to a call of a man shoplifting at Payson Market. When the suspect was found, police said he had a knife. They initially tased him, but it was ineffective. He charged at the other officer, at which point the officer shot him.
The unidentified man is now recovering in a Provo hospital.
"I don’t want to take them to jail; I don’t want to take them to a hospital," Cannon said.
Cannon says these are challenging situations.
"You need to know ways of trying to de-escalate that, understand people's mental state, talking to them in a way that might increase the likelihood of talking them down and not having to go hands-on or using deadly force," he said.
Sgt. Noemi Sandoval with the Payson Police Department said their officers are Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) certified and take part in training on de-escalation techniques, how to identify and handle individuals in a mental health crisis, and autism. She also pointed out the real-life experience where officers’ daily encounters deal with individuals experiencing mental health challenges in high-stress situations.
"Every hour going to training takes away from hours on the street, but it’s necessary to do," she said.
Cannon says this training — some of it now mandated — isn’t easy for all departments to incorporate, but it's important.
"It’s a challenge sometimes to fit it all in and still get the job done, especially in smaller departments, but it makes us better officers and deputies on the street," he said.
In the video below, FOX 13 News anchor Max Roth took a look at data collected by the Washington Post on fatal police shootings. That information started in 2015, and every year from then to 2023, they used annual population estimates to see if fatal police encounters are more or less common in Utah than in the nation as a whole. Here's what we found:
