Salt Lake County prosecutors found an officer was legally justified in fatally shooting a Midvale man who led police on a car chase last Halloween before stopping and approaching them carrying and clanging together two decorative samurai swords.
District Attorney Sim Gill said that while the shooting officer, Unified Police Department’s Leo Lopez, did not consent to an interview with prosecutors, interviews with other responding officers and a witness, plus reviews of video footage, indicated Lopez reasonably believed his life or others’ were in danger when he fired. That led Gill’s office to decline filing charges.
On Oct. 31, Mark Brunson’s girlfriend called police for help. Brunson, 38, had arrived home “intoxicated and very angry,” and was bleeding after breaking a ceiling fan with his face. He had also stabbed a TV with a knife, according to a letter explaining prosecutors’ findings.
The girlfriend, Gill said, hadn’t called police to report a crime. She wanted assistance to help get control of the situation and calm Brunson down. While she was on the phone with a dispatcher, Brunson went out to his car. The call, which Gill played during the Friday news conference, picked up Brunson screaming in coherently, as well as saying, “I’m going to get shot tonight.”
The woman told dispatchers that Brunson appeared to be heading for the decorative samurai swords in the car.
“Is it like an actual sharp sword?,” the dispatcher asked.
“Um” she responded, “I’ve never touched it myself.”
That’s when she said an officer — Lopez — had arrived, but Brunson had driven away. She also mentioned that Brunson had recently been treated for mental health issues.
Brunson led Lopez on a nearly 2-mile chase from his home in Midvale to a cul-de-sac in Cottonwood Heights, near 6850 South and 1130 East. There, Brunson exited his car as Lopez and two other officers — Cottonwood Heights officers Eryn Sustayta and Ken Eatchel — arrived and parked about 40 feet away, near where the cul-de-sac met the road.
(Paighten Harkins|The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill presents his findings in a police shooting investigation to reporters on Aug. 30, 2024. Gill declined to file charges against Unified police officer Leo Lopez in the Oct. 31, 2023, fatal shooting of Mark Brunson.
Video footage showed that Brunson, shirtless with red shorts on and a bloodied face, initially held his hands in the air after exiting his car. He then returned to the vehicle and pulled out two swords.
Meanwhile, Lopez had positioned himself behind a parked car and Sustayta joined him. Within seconds, Brunson had closed the distance between himself and the officers, not listening to their commands to stop or drop the swords and, instead, waving them in the air and hitting them together.
“He was being rather aggressive and just coming at us in an aggressive manner where ... I did not think he was going to stop,” Sustayta told prosecutors, according to the findings letter. “In that moment I genuinely believed he was going to continue and that he was determine to either hurt one of us or kill one of us.”
When he was about 10 feet away, Sustayta fired her Taser and, nearly simultaneously, Lopez fired his gun. They fired at 11 p.m.
Brunson was hit by two bullets that struck his chest and shoulder, then fell down. He was declared dead at 11:09 p.m.
Gill said that Sustayta’s interview was vital in making a decision in this case. Since she was standing next to Lopez, they likely had similar vantage points of what was happening — and they registered a threat and used force at nearly the same time.
She also told prosecutors, according to Gill, that she opted for the Taser after noting Lopez had his gun readied, but that the situation changed “dramatically” after she made that choice and she didn’t have time to change weapons before she and Lopez fired.
In addition to fearing for her and other officers’ lives, Sustayta said she was concerned for any families that may have been out for Halloween.
“That area right there specifically, I’ve patrolled it for four years,” she said. “I know that there’s a lot of families that lived there.”
Gill on Friday called the case “tragic” and an example of the “mental health crisis in our community.” He encouraged officials to better plan for and address it.
“Because I can promise you,” he said, “this is not the last time we’re going to be sitting here talking about another mentally ill person, or person who’s suffering mental health crisis, in a similar situation.”
A Salt Lake Tribune analysis of police shootings found that between 2010 and 2020, more than 40% involved someone in a mental health crisis.
Unified police did not immediately respond to The Tribune’s request for comment Friday afternoon.