OGDEN, Utah — A suspect was killed and a police officer was wounded in a shootout Tuesday afternoon in Ogden.
Deputy Chief Jake Sube said officers were called to Washington Park Apartments, located at 170 N. Washington Blvd., shortly before 3:30 p.m. They were there to serve a protective order.
When officers arrived, they encountered a male suspect, later identified as 37-year-old Brian Simonton, with a gun. Shots were then exchanged between officers and Simonton. One officer was shot and was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Sube said the officer is in stable condition.
Simonton was also shot and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Multiple officers fired shots, and OPD said all officers who were "directly involved" will be placed on administrative leave pending a full investigation by the Weber-Morgan Critical Incident Task Force. It is not yet known whether the suspect or officers shot first.
“Simonton did not respond to commands to move away from the handgun which was still within his reach and a police K9 was deployed to pull Simonton out of reach of the handgun. Once he was out of reach of the weapon, officers approached Simonton and found he sustained significant injuries from gunfire,” said Ogden City Police Chief Eric Young on Friday.
Simonton had a previously
Rodney and Kalya, residents of the Washington Park Apartments, thought kids were playing with fireworks outside their home at first. Then they saw officers jumping their fence and shooting across their front lawn.
“They actually were hiding behind my car up there," said Rodney. "We noticed the cops were outside. It got kind of crazy. They were actually in our backyard too, so it was like both sides, cops on both sides, and there were a lot of gunshots.”
Melvin Holland was in the nearby Lowe's parking lot when he heard gunshots ring out. Then he saw multiple police cars pulling up near the entrance of Ogden-Weber Technical College (OTECH), which is near the Washington Park Apartments.
"It was sporadic at first, but then it became, like, rapid. It was not automatic gunfire at all — it was definitely just single shots, but it was pretty rapid fire," Holland said. "I would say 30 rounds shot, and then more and more officers showed up."
The video below taken by Carson Kidwell shows officers running while four gunshots are heard in the background.
OTECH later told FOX 13 News that they enacted a shelter-in-place lockdown for about an hour until the scene was secured. Officials also said none of the school's students or employees were involved in the incident.
“I’m grateful for the quick coordination between Ogden City Police and the OTECH campus security team," OTECH President Jim Taggart said in a statement. "The college’s automated safety protocols were immediately deployed and worked as designed and practiced by college staff.”
