Officer justified in shooting of suspect at Fashion Place Mall, says District Attorney

MURRAY, Utah ( ABC4 ) — Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill determined the officer who fired their gun while attempting to apprehend a suspect in a stolen vehicle near Fashion Place Mall in Murray in September 2023 was justified in his use of force.

Officers had pulled over the suspect , later identified as Kelsey Raymond Robinson, 28, of Indianapolis, Indiana, near State Street and 6100 South for a traffic violation.

Bodycam footage presented by Gill showed the officer explaining the traffic violation. Once the officer was notified the car was reported as stolen, he approached to ask Robinson to step out of the car.

Robinson can then be seen reversing, ramming the officer’s patrol car and speeding away nearly pinning a second officer between the cars. Gill said the initial officer fired four shots toward Robinson, striking him with non-life-threatening injuries.

Gill admitted it is rare to find an officer justified when firing on a moving vehicle. He likened it to stepping in front of an oncoming wrecking ball. Gill said shooting at the wrecking ball is going to do nothing to slow it down.

“What was contextually different about this one was that I have an officer who is literally being swept up into that zone of danger if you will and he is reacting to that situation,” Gill said. “That’s an automatic function of trying to stop that threat that he is under.”

Gill said the question for him was whether or not there was direct harm to the officer when the officer chose to fire his weapon.

Robinson was later taken into custody in Colorado . He has since been sentenced to serve at least one year and up to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.

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