Body Camera Footage Released From Fatal Shooting In SLC
Feb 25, 2020, 8:15 PM | Updated: Jun 22, 2022, 3:01 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – Newly released police body camera video shows the intense moments as officers responded to a domestic violence situation where a woman was killed and an officer and suspect were injured.
“Dispatch received an open-line 911 call from the victim,” said Captain Richard Lewis with the Salt Lake City Police Department.
Officers did not have the exact address, but using cell phone tower information, they responded to the area of 125 South and 300 East around 3:40 a.m. on Feb. 10.
Court documents said the officers “could hear screaming and yelling coming from the apartment complex.”
“The initial officer kicked out the window and confronted the occupants, giving commands to not move and to show hands,” Lewis said.
When the officer looked inside the ground-floor window, he saw a man with his arms around a woman’s throat, “strangling her,” according to court documents.
“Police,” the officer was heard yelling in the video. “Drop it or I will shoot you right now. Let me see your hands.”
About ten seconds later, multiple gunshots were heard coming from inside the apartment.
“I’m hit,” another officer is heard saying as the camera shows him on the ground. “I’m hit on my leg.”
From a different officer’s camera, you could see officers dragging the injured officer to safety while two officers fired about a dozen shots into the window.
“The suspect retreated further into the apartment,” Lewis said during a press conference on Tuesday, where he showed the body camera video. “We later learned that the suspect left the building.”
The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Michael Tyson Nance, was later found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police who called it a failed suicide attempt.
“The bullet wound to (the) defendant entered his chin and exited through the bridge of his nose,” charging documents stated.
Once inside the apartment, officers found 34-year-old Natalie Thurber dead. The medical examiner determined that she died from a bullet wound to the neck.
Nance was later released from the hospital and booked into jail on investigation of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault.
Thurber’s family released a statement the same day the body camera video was made public.
“She was caring, funny, fiercely independent, and had a love that knew no bounds,” the family’s statement said.
The family offered their thanks, love and support to the officer who was injured.
“We would like to thank the amazing police officers, detectives, victim advocates, EMS, firefighters, and other public servants who have sacrificed their time to support, uplift, and mourn with us,” the statement went on to say.
Thurber’s family, along with the Salt Lake City Police Department, sought to remind people of the resources available to someone trying to escape domestic violence.
If you or someone you know is in need of help, the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition operates a confidential 24-hour hotline at 1-800-897-LINK.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
Utah Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-897-5465
