Police in Utah killed a 25-year-old during a traffic stop earlier this month after he refused to obey commands and an officer said he had a gun, body camera footage released Wednesday reveals.
Footage presented to reporters by Farmington Police Chief Eric Johnsen — who called the incident “a tragic ending to what started out as an everyday traffic stop” — shows five officers’ fatal shooting of Chase Allan on March 1, which occurred after an officer pulled Allan over for what they said was an illegitimate license plate.
The footage Johnsen showed reporters Wednesday was a compilation pulled from the five officers’ body cameras and the dashboard camera of the officer who initially pulled Allan over. It was also interspersed with brief written summaries of what police claimed unfolded.
The video provides a look at the fatal encounter between Allan and police officers. The day after the deadly shooting, the Farmington Police Department released a statement saying that “the driver became non-compliant with the initial officer.”
That initial announcement did not mention that the officers started shooting after one officer yelled “gun!” and that a gun was later found on the floor of Allan’s car, as the newly released footage shows.
The five officers involved have been placed on administrative leave, per department policy, while an investigation is underway by the Davis County Critical Incident Protocol Team, which is made up of a variety of investigators.
Johnsen on Wednesday conceded that the footage “is only one piece of information in the incident, and the only information available to us at the moment.”
Body camera footage shows encounter
The encounter occurred just after 3:20 p.m., when the officer pulled Allan over for a traffic stop at 145 East State Street in Farmington, a city about 17 miles north of Salt Lake City, according to the information released March 2.
The footage shows Allan pulling into a parking lot after being trailed by the police…
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