Utah police officers fatally shot a man after disarming him and then firing at him with his own gun, according to law enforcement officials and body-camera footage that captured more than a dozen bullets fired.
The video of officers from Roy, Utah, firing at Nicolas Sanchez, 38, at a gas station has sparked outrage from friends and family, who said the man was never a threat and that after police secured his gun, there was no justification for lethal force.
“He got killed in cold blood,” said Brenda Tyner, a close friend of Sanchez, who lived in Layton, about 25 miles north of Salt Lake City. “It makes no sense. They shot him so many times.”
The footage, first published by the Salt Lake Tribune and other local media, show two officers confronting Sanchez at a gas station on 21 February after a convenience store clerk called police on him because he was “acting suspiciously”, according to Heather White, an attorney for the city of Roy.
“Come over here and talk to me,” one officer said to Sanchez, who was standing outside the store. “Or do you just want to be arrested right now? It’s your choice.”
“What do you want to talk to me for, though? What did I do?” Sanchez replied to the officer, who said, “We got called on you.”
Sanchez briefly lifted up his sweatshirt and said he didn’t have anything on him, at which point an officer said they could see he had a gun on him, adding: “Do not reach for your pocket.” Soon after, one of the officers charged at Sanchez, sparking a brief chase and confrontation, leading to more than a dozen shots fired in quick succession.
The officers then shouted “do not move” at Sanchez as he lay on the pavement.
It’s difficult to see how the shots were fired in the footage, but White told the Guardian that one officer first fired shots at Sanchez, which allowed the second officer who was wrestling with him to knock his gun loose. That officer subsequently grabbed Sanchez’s gun and fired at him with that weapon while Sanchez was unarmed.
“He’s worried that Sanchez might have another weapon,” she said, adding that police do not know which officer killed him. “It’s the city’s position that the officers acted reasonably under the circumstances. They used deadly force in response to the threat of deadly force.”
In a statement after the incident, police labeled Sanchez as a suspect with an “extensive criminal history” and said a “struggle ensued” after he was uncooperative with police. The officers, who police have refused to name and who are on paid administrative leave, “received minor scrapes and scratches”, the statement said.
“They try to make him look like the bad person because of course they don’t want to be blamed for it,” said Lisa Orduno, a relative who has known Sanchez since he was eight years old. “It was a very wrongful death. It’s just horrible how it happened.”
Orduno, 49, was in tears discussing the video, adding that it was too painful for her husband, Sanchez’s cousin, to watch all the way through.
“Nick was a big-hearted person. He would do anything for anybody,” she added. “That’s why it’s just so hard to believe.”
Family and friends said Sanchez had a difficult childhood and that his mother died when he was young. He grew up in Placentia in southern California and had moved to Utah in 2008 to turn his life around.
Sanchez had served time in prison and was recently released early from parole, according to Annette Olsen, who considered Sanchez a son and housed him for the last three years. He recently got a full-time job as a forklift operator at a warehouse and had also helped Olsen at her dog daycare facility.
“He was just trying to better himself,” added Sandra Mata, whose husband grew up with Sanchez. “He would never hurt anybody.”
The video makes clear that the officers should face “criminal charges”, Mata said. “It’s not like we’re making false accusations. They cannot tell me they were in distress for their life, because he had no chance to do anything.”
Vicente Mata, her husband, said Sanchez was the father of two teenage daughters, who live in California.
“He wasn’t a violent person. He was running away. He was scared. There was no aggression shown from him,” he said, adding, “He was a great person. He always knew how to make people feel special.”
Tyner, 56, who lives nearby in Cloverfield, said police in the area often harass residents and that she believed officers were racially profiling Sanchez, who was Latino.
“They need to be put on trial,” she said. “They need to pay for what they’ve done.”