A man has been hospitalized after he was shot during an encounter with Unified Police in Holladay Thursday afternoon.
The man who was shot was identified as 49-year-old Layton resident Eric Pectol, an AP&P parole fugitive who UPD said pointed a gun at officers before the shooting.
Witnesses around the intersection of 4500 South 2300 East watched the entire ordeal unfold. Elijah Flax said a man on a motorcycle ran a red light and crashed into a truck.
"This truck comes in, straight hits [the motorcycle]. And, he flies off, does a whole flip and then he just gets up, and starts running," Flax recounted.
Flax and Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera described how a UPD officer just happened to be gassing up at the Chevron right next to the intersection.
The officer quickly hopped over a wall, Flax said, and chased the man down. At some point, a second officer responded. Sheriff Rivera said the man got aggressive with the officers and a fight ensued.
Officers yelled at Pectol to take his hands out of his pocket, Flax said, and then told Pectol to put the weapon on the ground.
"He was just holding his hip while he was running from [the officer]," Flax said, of Pectol. "The guy-- I think he dropped his weapon."
"The individual then bent down, picked up the gun that was on the ground, pointed it at the officers," Sheriff Rivera said. "The officers fired at him."
It's unclear if one or both officers opened fire. In video Flax took on his cell phone, it looks like Pectol grabs something off the ground, and points it toward an officer. That officer then fires shots at Pectol, and Pectol falls over.
Neighbors nearby heard the gunshots.
"Well I just thought, 'What is going on?'" Jeff Turner said.
While it was a shocking sight, he described how it was also eerie, because of what happened there in 2016.
"This is the same intersection that just a couple years ago, that that policeman was killed," Turner said. "Same exact intersection."
UPD Officer Doug Barney was shot and killed after responding to a traffic accident in that intersection in January of 2016.
That incident also involved a parole fugitive running from a crash. The fugitive shot and injured another officer. Police killed him shortly after.
Thursday's police shooting had a much different outcome.
According to Rivera, Pectol suffered serious to critical injuries in the shooting, but he survived. He was taken to the hospital and stabilized later that night.
A separate agency will investigate the shooting.
