Salt Lake officer not justified in shooting, district attorney says

Published: Thursday, July 7, 2011 3:57 p.m. MDT

SALT LAKE CITY â€" The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office has determined an officer-involved shooting in May was not legally justified.

Prosecutors will now decide whether to file criminal charges against the police officer for his use of deadly force.

On May 8, Salt Lake City police officer Matthew Giles fired eight times at a juvenile in a stolen car attempting to flee police near 1600 West and 400 South. The juvenile had already been involved in a hit-and-run accident, had purposely rammed a police car, was speeding and trying to avoid police.

In his statement to prosecutors, the officer said he feared for his life as he saw the car drive toward him. Giles told prosecutors the driver was about 20 feet away when he fired his police rifle.

"The vehicle was directly in front of me and was coming directly at me. ... It was very, moving very fast. I could see the vehicle wasn't trying to swerve to miss me at all," he told investigators. "It wasn't swerving. Seeing that the vehicle was coming at me at a very high rate of speed, I feared for my safety, I feared for my life, knowing that if I got hit by this vehicle, I, my life could be, I could die or I could get seriously injured.”

One of Giles' shots went through the juvenile's arm and entered his torso, the D.A.'s report states. The bullet was fired through the driver's side window.

But District Attorney Sim Gill said the officer's statement and the factual evidence did not add up.

Even if the car was moving 20 mph, Gill said the officer would have had to fire his weapon eight times in barely a second if the vehicle was just 20 feet away.

"His statement was not supported by the evidence," Gill said. "Based on what he had presented, we could not justify the shooting."

Gill added, "This is not an indication of any one particular department or law enforcement in general. This was a very specific analysis about an individual."

In a prepared statement, Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank did not make mention of whether he agreed or disagreed with the D.A.'s decision.

"The police department will now conduct an internal review of the officer's actions. Officer Giles is entitled to the rights afforded him under due process as this investigation is completed. Until such time, he remains on paid, administrative leave," Burbank said.

The juvenile who was shot claimed he was not trying to hit any officer, but actually trying to avoid them in order to get out of the area, the D.A. report states. He used words like "jumped" and "hopped" in describing how Giles got in the middle of the road in front of his vehicle.

"(The juvenile) also said that it was the officer who stepped out in from of (him) and that the officer put himself in that position," according to the report.