Ogden police say four officers fired at a man wielding a knife, killing him in the area of 32nd St. and Gramercy Avenue late Friday.
On Monday, police identified the man who was killed as Jovany Mercado-Bedolla, 26.
A person at a house party in the area called dispatchers just before 9 p.m., and said a man with a knife had approached partygoers at a driveway and seemed disoriented, Police Chief Randy Watt said at a Friday night news conference.
And the people at the party pointed the four officers toward the man’s location when they arrived shortly after.
Officers found Mercado-Bedolla at a nearby carport, where he was allegedly looking into cars. The officers say they told him to drop the knife, Watt said. He didn’t. They say Mercado-Bedolla approached them and ignored repeated orders to stop and drop the knife, which Watt said Mercado-Bedolla was holding in a “threatening manner.”
All four officers fired their service weapons. Mercado-Bedolla was declared dead at the scene shortly after 9 p.m. All officers were wearing body cameras, and Watt said each recorded footage of the altercation.
The Weber County Critical Incident Response Team is now investigating. The officers are on paid administrative leave — bringing the number of Ogden officers on paid leave to five, after an officer shot and killed 37-year-old Donald Joseph Lee on July 31.
Lee reportedly had a knife and charged police investigating a burglary in Roy, prompting an Ogden officer to open fire.
Watt said having so many officers on leave “has an impact, but we cover it with overtime shifts.”
Police have not released any additional information on the man who was killed.
