OGDEN, Utah — The Ogden City Police Department is down nine officers after tworecent officer-involved shootings have them on paid leave.
Police were called to a bar parking lot on 25th Street early Tuesday morning, where witnesses told them a man with a gun may have been assaulting a woman. Soon the suspect drove off in a stolen car, officers following, eventually getting him to pull over, said Chief Eric Young.
“Before the officers were able to exit their vehicle, the suspect exited the driver's door of the vehicle and advanced on the officers withdrawing a handgun and firing at the officers in their vehicles," he said. "The officers exited their vehicles, and two of the vehicles were struck by the gunfire.”
An officer shot and killed the suspect, Alex Lopez, 23, said Chief Young.
“It's a difficult stressful career," he said. "The officers in our department are already under quite a bit of stress just knowing that eight of them were involved in a shooting, one was seriously injured and is still dealing with a very serious injury from that previous shooting.
Chief Young believes violent crime overall in Ogden has decreased by over 50 percent in the last 15 years, but the number of officer-involved shootings keeps increasing.
“I'm concerned about the number of criminals convicted in violent felonies being released from prison, unsupervised in our community," he said.
Lopez was arrested and charged with multiple felonies in 2019. He was out on his third opportunity of parole after being rearrested and released twice for violating his parole.
“The officers find themselves being put in harm's way to rearrest someone that they took great risk to arrest just a few months before," said Chief Young.
The Justice Reinvestment Initiative, signed into Utah law in 2015, is to blame for officers having to use deadly force more often, he said.
“We were very happy no one else was injured," said Chief Young. "Very happy none of our officers were injured. It's very unfortunate that the mother and father lost their son.”
FOX 13 News reached out to the governor's office for comment and has not heard back.
The police department is utilizing officers from specialty assignments, like school resource officers, to make up for the temporary staffing shortage.
There is body and dash camera footage the Weber County Attorney is currently looking at as they investigate both recent officer-involved shootings. Police will be expediting the process so they can release it to the public as soon as they can.
