A Sandy police officer fatally shot a reportedly suicidal man about seven seconds after ordering the 33-year-old to show his hands, body camera footage released Friday shows.
The man’s brother had called police at about 1 a.m. on March 26 for help, prompting an officer to respond. Dylan Murphy had left a home in Sandy while seriously injured, suicidal and experiencing a mental health crisis, police said.
The responding officer found Murphy walking along 1000 East near 11640 South, officials said. When the officer called out to him, Murphy didn’t seem to react and kept walking, body camera footage shows.
The officer reported to police dispatch that Murphy had his right hand concealed in a jacket, and officials said Friday that the family was not sure if Murphy had a weapon at the time — because Murphy had harmed himself earlier in the evening, officials said.
About a minute and a half after the officer began following Murphy in his patrol vehicle, Murphy can be seen turning around and starting to walk toward the officer. The officer then gets out of his car and commands Murphy show his hands.
Murphy starts running toward the officer, body camera footage shows, and the officer aims his firearm at Murphy while commanding him to show his hands for a second time.
The officer then shouts “Hands!” at Murphy twice more before firing his weapon at least three times — about seven seconds after his first command to Murphy, the footage shows.
It’s unclear if Murphy was struck by the officer’s initial gunfire; the officer was running backward while shooting at Murphy, and at one point fell on his back.
Once the officer gets up, he shouts three more times for Murphy to show his hands, the footage shows. Murphy then charges the officer, and the officer shoots at Murphy twice more.
At that point, Murphy falls to the ground, groaning and panting. It’s unclear in the video if any of those shots struck Murphy.
The officer then yells again for Murphy to show his hands, and orders Murphy to roll over, the footage shows.
“Come on, man,” Murphy seems to reply, still lying on his stomach. Murphy then rolls over with his hands in the air, and the officer commands him to then roll back onto his stomach, to which he complies.
The officer then orders Murphy to keep his arms out, but Murphy instead tries to get up off the ground. The officer repeatedly commands Murphy to remain where he is.
“Stay on the ground. I will shoot,” the officer says, but Murphy moves to a crawling position before standing up and walking toward the officer.
The officer shouts three more commands, then shoots Murphy in the torso over the course of about 13 seconds, the footage shows. Murphy then falls to the ground, and died due to his injuries.
“All of our officers are equipped with less-lethal forms [of force] — whether it be Taser, [pepper spray] or baton,” Sandy police Chief Greg Severson said Friday. “As you can see from the video, this incident escalated extremely quickly. Typically during deadly force encounters like this situation, especially with an officer being alone, we do not train our officers to use less than lethal mitigation when they’re alone.”
Severson said Murphy had a “history” with the department, but did not specify Friday what that history was.
Throughout the confrontation — which lasted a little over three minutes between the officer’s initial sighting of Murphy to when Murphy was fatally shot — there was only one Sandy police officer present.
Severson said a second officer was redirected to the scene from another assignment, so that’s why it “took some time.”
According to the footage, the sole responding officer fired his weapon about six times at Murphy. Officials said exactly how many times Murphy was struck will be investigated according to “officer-involved critical incident” protocol.
The officer, who was not identified, remains on paid administrative leave. He has been a member of the department since March 2021, Severson said.
