Content warning • This article discusses suicide. If you or people you know are at risk of self-harm, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24-hour support by calling 988.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill ruled Friday that a Taylorsville police officer’s use of force was justified in a November 2021 shooting.
Before sunrise on November 4, 2021, officer Benjamin Cameron was on patrol near a Taylorsville gas station when he saw a man who was “acting suspiciously,” according to court documents. The man, the records state, was later identified as 29-year-old Aaron Rehn.
Rehn disappeared from the scene while Cameron spoke with the gas station clerk. The officer found Rehn at a house near the gas station at 4:21 a.m., according to body camera footage. The footage shows Rehn standing behind a tree at the end of a driveway, with his back to Cameron.
The documents say Cameron shined his flashlight at Rehn and told him to come out. Rehn then ran behind another tree and attempted to scale a nearby fence, so Cameron followed.
Cameron had almost reached Rehn, the documents say, when Rehn produced a pistol and started firing. Cameron ran away toward a building as Rehn fired at least eight shots at the officer. Investigators later found eight 9mm shell casings at the scene.
None of the rounds fired by Rehn hit Cameron, but at least one shot narrowly missed his head, Cameron later told investigators.
Cameron shot back five times, a number confirmed later when the officer’s gun was checked. None of the bullets from Cameron hit Rehn, according to court documents.
“I was getting shot at. Felt like I was going to die,” Cameron said to investigators, adding that he believed Rehn was “out to kill.”
As Cameron ran from the shots, he approached the road, where he met another Taylorsville officer responding to the scene. Cameron reloaded his weapon from behind that officer’s patrol car, as more officers worked to contain the area to search for Rehn.
(Chris Samuels | Tribune file photo) Police investigate a scene on Quailstone Drive, where a suspect fired several shots at an officer in Taylorsville, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021.
Rehn was found about 7 a.m., some 2 1/2 hours later. A 12-year-old boy, getting ready for school, spotted him in a window well of the boy’s house, police said. The boy alerted his parents, who called 911.
Rehn fled from the boy’s home but was later found crouching in the corner of a fence on the 2000 West block of Quailstone Drive. When officers approached him, Rehn fatally shot himself in the head.
Police said they found two pistols in Rehn’s possession: A 9mm Sig Sauer P365 pistol, which he used to shoot at Cameron and to shoot himself, and a .45-caliber Springfield Armory pistol in his pocket.
The Utah Office of the Medical Examiner later reported Rehn had tested positive for codeine, morphine and methamphetamine.
Gill said he concluded that Rehn “unlawfully presented an immediate threat of death” or serious injury to Cameron, so his office is not filing criminal charges against the officer.
“He was a young man who had succumbed to the demons of addiction,” Gill said at a news conference Friday, noting he spoke with Rehn’s family Friday morning. “This was the result of that scourge that many in our community are dealing [with], and the family is understandably heartbroken. They shared with me ... that they wanted to apologize to the officer, ... but also that Mr. Rehn himself would have apologized, because this is not typically the person he is.”
