The suspect in the shooting death of one Utah County Sheriff’s officer and the wounding of another died Friday as law enforcement provided more detail on four shootings that stretched through two counties.
Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui, 27, succumbed to his injuries Friday at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. He was shot in Juab County on Thursday after police say he shot and killed Sgt. Cory Wride, 44, and wounded Deputy Greg Sherwood, 38, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Garcia-Jauregui had served 4½ years in prison for an attempted-murder charge and he also had a felony charge for assault by a prisoner dismissed. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole released him, though it had issued a warrant for his arrest just days before the slaying of Wride, said Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy.
Steve Gehrke, spokesman for the Utah Department of Corrections, said an arrest warrant had been issued for Garcia-Jauregui on Wednesday after he failed to check in with a parole officer, report a change in residence or maintain a job, as required under his parole conditions.
A 17-year-old girl was with Garcia-Jauregui during the shootings on Thursday, Tracy said.
Wride, a 19-year veteran, was shot to death Thursday when he stopped his patrol car to check on a pulled-over pickup truck with flashers blinking on State Road 73 between Eagle Mountain and Cedar Fort. On Thursday, Tracy said Wride never exited his police car and appeared to have died in an ambush, but on Friday the sheriff corrected that information.
Tracy said Wride exited the car and spoke with Garcia-Jauregui. Then Wride returned to his car and searched for information about Garcia-Jauregui and the pickup he was driving on a computer linked to police databases. Tracy said it’s not known why Garcia-Jauregui was parked there.
Wride was at the scene for 20 minutes before someone slid open the truck’s rear window and fired a handgun — not a rifle as Tracy said Thursday — at Wride, killing him in his car.
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