Body Camera Footage Captures Fiery End To Slow-Speed Pursuit With RV In Kearns
May 11, 2021, 11:21 PM | Updated: Jul 6, 2023, 1:25 pm
KEARNS, Utah — It began as a traffic stop and accelerated into a slow-speed pursuit before ending in a fiery crash in a Kearns neighborhood that damaged three trailer homes.
Footage obtained by KSL-TV Tuesday showed the events as they unfolded through the perspective of a Unified Police officer’s body camera.
Officers said they initiated a traffic stop on the morning of Aug. 7, 2020 after they noticed a RV hauling a trailer that was dragging a cord from a generator and had its slide-out out.
In the video, an officer could be heard questioning the driver of the RV and telling him to shut off the vehicle, but the man drove away.
“You’re going to get chased!” an officer could be heard exclaiming.
Police at the time said a low-speed pursuit followed along 4700 South before the driver turned into the Shadow Ridge Estates mobile home park.
The vehicle was already smoking, officers said, before it collided with a parked car and burst into flames.
Video footage showed officers as they responded to the fire, questioned the other occupants where the driver had gone, and evacuated nearby homes as the fire raged.
One man who police briefly took into custody told officers he didn’t know the driver and didn’t realize he had been caught in a pursuit.
“(I) started to go to sleep,” the man said on the video. “I woke up to all this!”
A female occupant also told officers she didn’t know who the driver was.
Officers determined the RV and trailer had been stolen in Centerville in July and said the trailer contained burglary tools and drug paraphernalia.
Police at the time found a Jeep nearby that also came up as stolen.
Through their investigation, police identified the man they believed was the driver of the RV.
Joseph Dean Facello, 44, was charged in September with two felonies and two misdemeanors in connection with the events of that day.
On April 28, he pleaded guilty to a single third-degree felony count of receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle and was given credit for time served.
A judge, according to court records, advised Facello the crime could be used as an enhancement for penalties for a subsequent offense.
