Body camera video released Friday shows that a man suspected of breaking into an Ogden car repair shop pointed a stapler at a responding officer as he approached her before he was shot.
The Weber County Attorney’s Office disclosed the video and the 911 call that precipitated the Sept. 30 shooting “to provide [the public] with all of the information we have at this time to help you better understand what happened.”
Weber County prosecutors are still investigating whether the shooting was justified.
The shooting occurred after Ogden police received a 911 call around 7:20 a.m. reporting that it appeared someone had broken into the AAMCO Transmission shop, at 3076 Wall Ave. The caller was dropping off their car and noticed that someone had apparently broken the glass entrance door.
Video starts after the officer arrived at the business but before she goes inside.
Once she enters the building, she spots a man peaking his head out of a back room. The man was later identified as 34-year-old Aaron Baugh.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m busy,” Baugh responded.
She asked Baugh if he works at the shop and he said he does, but won’t come out to talk to her.
The officer then went outside — a statement from police said the man’s “demeanor” prompted her exit — and called for back up. She then told the man to come outside and show his hands.
Video shows that as Baugh walks through the doorway, he brandishes a black object and points it at the officer, who shoots at him twice in the arm.
The black object was a stapler.
(Photo courtesy the Weber County Attorney's Office) Authorities released the video of the police shooting of Aaron Baugh on Sept. 30, 2020. Baugh was suspected of breaking into the the AAMCO Transmission shop, at 3076 Wall Ave., and brandished a stapler as he approached the investigating Ogden police officer, “presenting it as a weapon.” He survived and was later charged in the burglary.
Baugh survived the shooting and later told police, according to court documents, that “it was his intention to provoke [the officer] into shooting him by making her feel threatened by a dangerous weapon.”
Baugh was charged in 2nd District Court with a second-degree felony count of assault against a police officer, a third-degree felony county of burglary and a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief.
