Salt Lake City Police release body-camera video of officer-involved shooting
May 2, 2018, 3:11 PM | Updated: 9:53 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Salt Lake City Police released body-camera video from the officer-involved shooting that killed 32-year-old Delorean Pikyavit on April 18.
Captain Lance VanDongen said police got a call around 12:15 that afternoon from a woman who said her boyfriend, Pikyavit, had assaulted her, broken windows in the house on Princeton Avenue, and was holding half a pair of scissors to his neck. The woman went to a neighbor’s house to call 911.
According to police, Pikyavit was on the sidewalk and ran back inside the house when officers arrived.
Police said Pikyavit had walked away from the Fortitude Treatment Center and had a warrant out for child endangerment.
Shortly after a negotiator arrived, police said Pikyavit made a comment about “going out with a bang.” Salt Lake City Police called out their SWAT team.
Around 1:45 p.m., police said officers smelled gas and Pikyavit “alluded to igniting a lighter,” so the SWAT team turned off gas to the home. Shortly after, police said Pikyavit said he would not go back to jail and that he would die that day.
At 1:50 p.m., police said Pikyavit walked out of the house with a knife in one hand and a half-pair of scissors in his other hand. Body camera video shown to media on Wednesday morning shows the encounter.
“Come on man, put the knife down, put the knife down,” a negotiator shouted in the video.
Pikyavit did not immediately follow orders. He moved back and forth on the porch, at some points holding his arms out. In other moments, he made motions toward his chest with the knife. At one point, Pikyavit told the officers to shoot him.
Over the course of the 90 seconds leading up to the shooting, police said they ordered Pikyavit to drop the weapons more than 11 times and to sit down more than nine times. Just before the shooting, Pikyavit tossed one weapon to the ground, then moved the other weapon from one hand to the other. As he began to step forward, down from the porch, police said two officers fired.
One officer, police said, fired a “less lethal” round, described as similar to a racquetball. The other fired a round from a .223-caliber rifle. Pikyavit later died.
Inside the house, police said they found a note in which Pikyavit “identified himself as a criminal and alluded to killing police.”
The West Valley City Police Department and District Attorney’s office are conducting the investigation into the shooting. The Salt Lake City Police Department Internal Affairs and Civilian Review Board will also investigate.
