Posted on 07/06/2007 9:12:32 PM PDT by elhombrelibre
Salt Lake City police this afternoon shot and killed a desperate armed robbery suspect who was holding a Green Street resident hostage.
The man, armed with handgun, had tried to steal a car from a husband and wife near 650 S. Park St., but he fled when the husband got out of the car and scuffled with him, police said.
He ran to nearby Green Street and was spotted around 12:15 p.m. near 672 S. Green St. The man ran into the house, where he took a man and a woman hostage.
The male hostage was able to escape, but the suspect held onto the woman, a gun to her head as he shouted to police around 1:20 p.m. that he would not go back to prison and would not be taken alive.
At that point an officer, apparently armed with a rifle, shot and killed the man as he stood with the hostage in the front doorway.
A neighbor who lives nearby first reported the suspicious man.
The witness, who asked that he not be identified, said he was inside his house and saw the man looking around his front porch, like he was "stalking someone." The man crouched down and the witness saw he had a chrome handgun.
The neighbor said he called police and watched as the gunman went to 672 S. Green St. He said the hostages were the woman who lives there and her boyfriend.
Jayme Chilbert said she moved in across the street from the crime scene a week ago.
She said she heard police yell to the gunman, "Drop the weapon. Release the hostage."
Next, Chilbert said, she heard one shot, then quiet.
Police shot and killed a man today who had taken a woman hostage near Green Street and 700 South and yelled to officers that he would not be taken alive.
The standoff shut down the area to traffic as police surrounded the small rental home where a man held a woman at gunpoint.
"The suspect had his arm around the neck of the female" and pointed a gun pointed to her head, said Salt Lake City police detective Jeff Bedard. "He said he wanted to die. He wasn't going to go back to prison."
When an officer had a clear shot at the man, Bedard said, he took it, killing the man. The hostage was unharmed.
The incident began at 12:20 p.m., police said, when a man tried to carjack the parked vehicle of Jace and Pat Snell, who had come from Provo to visit their daughter nearby.
After 67-year-old Jace Snell had gotten out of his car he was knocked to the ground by a man who put a gun to Snell's chest and demanded the keys, as Pat looked on from inside the vehicle, according to the couple's daughter.
"My father said, 'I just wanted to get hold of him and wring his neck,'" the daughter, Tamara Snell, said.
Jace Snell did manage to kick the man who fled on foot. Snell then called police.
Michael Proud was watching television in his apartment when he heard a noise and looked out his window. "I saw this guy standing behind the porch looking out onto the street," Proud said. "I saw this chrome-plated pistol; it looked like a 9 mm."
Proud called 911 as he watched the man. "He looked intense," Proud said, describing the man as white, in his 40s with gray stubble beard, wearing a baseball cap, long sleeved blue shirt, jeans and white tennis shoes.
The description matched that given by Jace Snell when he called police.
The man ran off and Proud alerted his neighbors.
About 12:47 p.m. police responded to a row of multi-colored rental homes on Green Street and 700 South where an armed man had taken another man and a woman hostage. By the time police arrived the man had escaped, police said.
Meanwhile, the Snells had lunch with their daughter and returned to Provo before police called and asked the couple to return for an interview with police, Tamara Snell said.
"He's a pretty tough old bird," she said of her father.
"Your choice" I guess.
This was cheaper.
Good shootin!
Glad to hear SLCPD is so customer-focused and intent on satisfying his desire...
“”He’s a pretty tough old bird,” she said of her father”
God bless his ornery hide : )
Humm
Looks like the cops applied rule 308.
Have you no compassion for your fellow man? Do you know how many lawyers will go to bed hungry tonight...and for years to come...because this poor wretch was taken out?
You guys in SLC are getting pretty good, few more stories like that, and criminals like Rocky Anderson, will be moving on....
At that point an officer, apparently armed with a rifle, shot and killed the man as he stood with the hostage in the front doorway.
Apparently their motto is: "We Aim To Please".
Jayme Chilbert ... said she heard police yell to the gunman, "Drop the weapon. Release the hostage."
Next, Chilbert said, she heard one shot, then quiet. The perp was probably expecting a stand off by liberal hand-wringing politician types unwilling to give the officer the green light to shoot. Guess he was wrong.
Excellent! The porker LT with the PhD..designated hostage negotiator...must be whining like crazy cuz somebody actually done some police work. And fine work it was. Applause!! [attributable, doubtless, to the new training post-Colombine....a new attitude.]
And new tools for the job!!!
Now this is the kind of gun control what we been talking about.
I suppose the usual suspects will be screaming about the rights of the dead guy, saying this didn’t have to happen, etc. I say give the cop a medal. He did society one huge favor.
He got his wish, and he saved the tax payers a lot of money!
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