A Salt Lake City man suspected of killing his girlfriend and shooting a police officer this week also apparently shot himself in the face, investigators say.
In jail documents filed this week, police wrote that someone at 125 S. 300 East called 911 early Monday and left the line open rather than speaking to dispatchers. Dispatchers heard talking in the background, about "someone getting hurt and getting killed," investigators wrote.
Multiple Salt Lake City officers went to an apartment building at that address and heard "screaming and yelling" coming from inside, investigators wrote. They then heard two gunshots fired from inside the building; one round struck an officer in the lower leg, police wrote.
Inside one of the apartments, police found the body of Natalie Thurber, 34, who had been shot in the head. A blood trail led to the back door of the building, heading south and east. The man who lived in the apartment later turned up at a fire station in that direction, police wrote. He was "bleeding heavily from the face" and was treated by fire crews before he was taken, in police custody, to a hospital.
Doctors believed the man’s wound was self-inflicted, police wrote. Thurber was the man’s girlfriend, they wrote.
"It was learned an argument ensued prior to the 911 call being placed which resulted in (Thurber) being shot and killed," police wrote. The man "then directed fire at the officers outside upon their arrival, then turned the weapon on himself."
Police found a bullet hole in the ceiling of the man's apartment; the round had nearly reached the apartment above.
Because the man had allegedly just killed Thurber, police wrote, “it is reasonable to believe when he turned the weapon at officers and fired ... he was attempting to kill them.”
The man had planned to move to Ohio on Monday, police wrote. Instead, he was treated at a hospital and was booked on Tuesday into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of homicide, three counts of shooting a firearm at a person, and reckless endangerment. He has not been officially charged.
