‘Lives Were Saved,’ Police Leaders Praise Officers’ Actions

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — Salt Lake City’s police chief and Salt Lake County’s sheriff both say they’ve never seen anything like the chase and shooting rampage that took place Monday morning along a State Street.

“Never seen that,” said Chief Mike Brown with SLCPD. “The thing that made this so dangerous is that we had an active shooter in a vehicle driving through the streets of Salt Lake City shooting with impunity.”

“This is a first,” said Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera. “We didn’t know what the suspect was thinking at the time and there is no way to know”

The chase lasted 19 minutes along State street from about 500 South to 3300 South.

Police say Harold Robinson, 37, was pointing his rifle out the window randomly firing away as police chased him.  Investigators say Robinson had robbed two convenience stores at gun point prior to the chase.

Shooting Update: 15 officers on paid administrative leave after yesterday police chase and shooting through the streets of salt lake. Waiting for press conf. with top officers to update the latest. join us @KSL5TV at Noon.

— Dan Rascon (@TVDanRascon) April 9, 2019

It all came to an end when Robinson lost control of his truck and crashed into a business at 3300 South. Officers surrounded the truck and a hail of gun fire could be heard. Robinson was found dead next to his truck.

Chief Brown says the challenge is this doesn’t fit the typical active shooter situation.

“One of the first rules is: contain the problem, the situation. This is mobile… how do you contain that?”

That’s why both agencies say new training will be instigated as a result.

“We called our training unit to the scene. We are going to look at what happened and how we can prepare and be better prepared in the future,” said Brown.

“After this investigation is completed we will identify areas we need to train more on or areas that we need to improve on,” said Sheriff Rivera.

Both believe their officers acted appropriately to bring the shooting to an end.

“I applaud their efforts they ran into the face of danger,” said Brown.

“Lives were saved by the actions the officers took,” said Rivera.