9 officers legally justified in fatal police shooting in November, district attorney says

SALT LAKE CITY — Nine officers involved in the fatal shooting of an armed Magna man in November were determined Thursday to be legally justified in using deadly force by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

Joseph Dean Black, 48, was shot and killed outside his home near 3300 South and 7615 West.

On Nov. 13, Black “had consumed a large amount of alcohol and fired a gun or guns inside his home and outside the house in a residential neighborhood,” according to the final report by District Attorney Sim Gill. Just after midnight on Nov. 14, numerous 911 calls were made reporting shots in the area. Black’s adult daughter later told investigators that her dad was depressed, Gill said, and seemingly without warning “started shooting rounds” after dinner.

Responding officers found Black going in and out of his home, “sometimes with a handgun, sometimes with a rifle which he fired outside his house,” the report states.

Officers formed what is called an Immediate Action Team to confront Black. As they called out to Black, Black told them he was “locked and loaded,” according to the report.

At one point, Black’s daughter came out of the house and also confronted her father and got into a fight with him.

“(She) tried to remove Mr. Black’s handgun by force, but Mr. Black punched (the woman) in the head, knocking her to the ground unconscious,” according to the report.

Cellphone video recorded by a neighbor shows the woman and Black arguing in the street. At one point, Black is on the ground as his daughter attempts to wrest his gun away. But as Black gets back up and walks to the sidewalk, his daughter follows and continues to argue with him. He is then seen striking her in the head and she falls to the ground.

Originally it was reported that police had heard a gunshot just before the woman was knocked down, leading them to believe she had been shot. Gill said Thursday that was not the case.

Black went back into his house but exited again a short time later holding a gun. By this time, a team of officers had moved from behind a wall to help the woman. The officers all yelled at Black multiple times to put his gun down as he stood on his porch and yelled obscenities back at the officers.

West Valley police officer Hunter Burbage said at one point, however, Black switched his gun from one hand to the other and then raised his arm and pointed his gun in the direction of officers.

“We all fired and then he went down, so we stopped firing,” Burbage told investigators.

Gill says a total of 51 shell casings from officers were collected at the scene, while investigators collected 18 casings from inside and outside of Black’s house that were believed to have been fired by him. Between 58 and 65 shots were fired by police, the report states. Black was shot nine times.

The district attorney said no one was injured by the shots Black fired outside his house.

Despite Black being armed throughout most of the confrontation, Gill says the officers showed great restraint.

“There are multiple times that he comes out when officers are out there, and they demonstrated incredible restraint. They knew that he had weapons … but he had not yet pointed it in a way where they would have felt directly threatened. The threat is ever-present there, but not in an immediate threat way that was pointed at them. So they did not use lethal force at that point,” he said. “It is when he raises (the gun) and presents it directly at them, that’s when (he is shot).”

Unified police officers Todd Gray, Austin Schmidt, Michael Gailey, Brayden Borders, Ryan Smithson, Michael Bauer and Caden Bushnell, and Taylorsvile police officer Michael Haggard, along with Burbage were all determined to be legally justified in firing their weapons.