District Attorney: 9 officers were legally involved in fatal police shooting in November

SALT LAKE CITY – The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office concluded Thursday that the use of deadly force was legally justified on nine police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a Magna gunman in November.

Joseph Dean Black, 48, was shot outside his home near 3300 South and 7615 West.

On Nov. 13, Black “had consumed a large amount of alcohol and discharged one or more weapons inside his home and outside the home in a residential area,” District Attorney Sim Gill's final report said. Shortly after midnight on Nov. 14, numerous 911 calls came in reporting gunshots in the area. Black's adult daughter later told investigators that her father had been depressed, Gill said, and seemingly without warning “started shooting himself” after dinner.

Officers responding to the call found Black entering and exiting his home, “sometimes with a pistol, sometimes with a rifle, which he fired outside his home,” the report said.

Officers formed a rapid response team to confront Black. When they called Black, he told them he was “loaded and the safety off,” according to the report.

At some point, Black's daughter came out of the house, confronted her father, and got into an argument with him.

“(She) attempted to forcibly take Mr. Black's gun away, but Mr. Black struck (the woman) in the head, causing her to fall to the ground unconscious,” the report said.

Cellphone video taken by a neighbor shows the woman and Black arguing in the street. At one point, Black is lying on the ground while his daughter tries to grab the gun from him. But when Black gets back up and walks to the sidewalk, his daughter follows him and continues to argue with him. He is then seen hitting her in the head and she falls to the ground.

Police were initially told they heard a gunshot shortly before the woman was struck, leading them to believe she had been shot. Gill said Thursday that was not the case.

Black went back into his house, but left shortly after, gun in hand. Meanwhile, a team of police officers had come out from behind a wall to help the woman. All of the officers repeatedly yelled at Black to put down his weapon while he stood on his porch and shouted obscenities at the officers.

However, West Valley Police Officer Hunter Burbage said that at one point Black switched his gun from one hand to the other, then raised his arm and pointed the gun in the direction of the officers.

“We all fired and then he went down, so we stopped shooting,” Burbage told investigators.

Gill says a total of 51 shell casings were collected by police at the scene, while investigators inside and outside Black's home found 18 shell casings believed to have been fired by him. Between 58 and 65 shots were fired by police, the report says. Black was shot nine times.

The district attorney said no one was injured by the shots Black fired outside his home.

Although Black was armed during most of the confrontation, officers showed great restraint, according to Gill.

“He came out several times while officers were outside, and they showed incredible restraint. They knew he had weapons … but he hadn't yet brandished them in a way that would have made them feel directly threatened. The threat was ever-present, but not in an immediate threat situation directed at them. So they didn't use deadly force at that point,” he said. “It wasn't until he raised (the weapon) and pointed it directly at them that (he was shot).”

UNED police officers Todd Gray, Austin Schmidt, Michael Gailey, Brayden Borders, Ryan Smithson, Michael Bauer and Caden Bushnell, as well as Taylorsville police officers Michael Haggard and Burbage all believed that the firing of their weapons was legally justified.