On Jan. 9, a Salt Lake City officer stopped a man who was driving a late model pickup truck and had a cordial conversation with the driver about the registration and a malfunctioning turn signal light. The driver was not involved in the incident that led up to the fatal officer-involved shooting.
During the stop, a man identified by police as 32-year-old Chandler Grillone, approached the officer’s vehicle while the officer was checking the pickup driver’s information. The officer sprang out of his vehicle and asked Grillone what he was doing. Grillone was not involved in the traffic stop.
The video shows Grillone telling the officer that he was conducting a citizen’s audit and he refused to obey commands from the officer. In the video, Grillone becomes increasingly confrontational with the officer and the officer orders him to get away. Grillone appears to continue advancing and the officer orders him onto the ground.
Grillone does not comply. Instead, he appears to assume a fighting stance and the officer orders him to drop something. (Lights from the officer’s flashlight and from the vehicles, obscure the object the officer ordered Grillone to drop in the video.) The officer drew his service pistol and ordered Grillone to get on the ground.
Instead of getting on the ground, Grillone jumped into the back of the pickup truck the officer stopped. The officer then communicated to dispatch that the subject has a knife.
Grillone jumped out of the pickup truck bed and walked toward the passenger side of the officer’s patrol vehicle. A citizen was riding along with the officer in the passenger seat. Grillone ordered the citizen out of the patrol vehicle.
As Grillone reached the vehicle after repeated warnings to stop, the officer opened fire. Grillone was hit and fell to the curb in a seated position. Backup officers arrived after the shooting.
Grillone died at a local hospital.
Salt Lake City PD said in a release that “the officer involved in this incident received an injury consistent with a sharp-edged object.” Police said the injury was not life threatening.
“Officers recovered a weapon from Grillone on scene,” police said.
The incident is under investigation, and police said they could not say what weapon Grillone possessed because of the ongoing investigation.