RIVERTON, Utah — Police have confirmed the identity of the arson suspect who was involved in a deadly shooting with several Utah agencies Thursday night.
Tanner Cottrell, 27, was suspected of being involved in an arson incident the day before at a home near 2650 East and 2100 South, where he may have taken firearms and a ballistic vest from the crime scene and left in a stolen Ford F-350 truck.
At around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, law enforcement located the suspect in Orem and shared his location with law enforcement throughout Utah and Salt Lake counties.
For neighbor Julie Pratt, it was an unusual incident that doesn't happen in their neighborhood.
“It kind of looked like it was coming from the chimney, but I am not sure if was directly coming from the chimney, it could have been with smoke was coming from the fire up the chimney,” said Pratt. “I am not going to worry until I know what the circumstance is, this kind of activity does not usually happen in our neighborhood, so it’s not something that really concerns me."
Officers attempted to stop the suspect, who was driving a truck at the time, but the suspect refused to stop. The pursuit then went through Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City. At multiple points during the pursuit, the suspect fired a gun at the pursuing officers.
“Based on the preliminary information that we have so far, as officers were following that vehicle the suspect fired several times at those officers from his vehicle,” said Salt Lake City Police Department spokesman, Brent Weisberg.
The pursuit ended at 12:30 a.m. in Riverton when Cottrell crashed his truck, flipping it over. Cottrell died on-scene, his cause and manner of death is to be determined by the medical examiner's office.
No officers were injured.
The other agencies involved at Taylorsville Police Department, Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake, Utah County Sheriff's Office, Utah Highway Patrol and West Valley City Police Department.
No other information is available at this time.
