Raziel Rodas pulled over on the dark shoulder of Interstate 15 near Springville.
He and a friend had just run out of gas. It was a December 2017 evening, about 6:40 p.m., but they had extra fuel in their vehicle. Rodas climbed into the truck’s bed to pour it in the tank, leaning over the edge to avoid being hit by speeding traffic.
While awkwardly pouring the gas, however, he was hit in the back by something else: a bullet. He and his friend took cover, and the friend dialed 911.
A few lanes over, Brody and Erin Lambert were driving on the freeway with their four children when the back window of their pickup truck shattered, covering the kids in glass. The Lamberts quickly pulled off at a truck stop to call police.
The family and Rodas didn’t know they were in the middle of a police shooting, in which officers from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and Spanish Fork police opened fire — some with high-powered assault rifles — and shot a total of 72 rounds during a traffic stop.
Their intended target, Arturo Gallemore-Jimenez, had shot out his truck window earlier that day in Nephi after locking himself out of the vehicle. He fled before police got to the scene, and as officers tried to pull him over on I-15, he fired three rounds at them. He was wanted out of Aurora, Colo., on suspicion of attempted murder from the day prior, though officers didn’t know it when they returned fire.
Gallemore-Jimenez suffered survivable injuries and was arrested shortly after. The Utah County Attorney’s Office
decided it would not bring criminal charges against the officers. Still, the Spanish Fork Police Department decided to do what most Utah police departments do when an officer uses deadly force:
investigate it internally, comparing the officer’s actions to department policy to determine if any policies had been violated.
A review concluded that the Spanish Fork officer’s actions were within policy, but the Use of Force Review Board recommended that future training should stress that officers be aware of their surroundings — especially nearby civilians — when utilizing lethal force.
The second agency involved, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, did not conduct an internal investigation, an official confirmed. The office, which has a budget 12 times larger than Spanish Fork’s,
also did not present a report to a Use of Force Review Board. And there’s no evidence any steps were taken to stress awareness of civilians in future use-of-force situations.
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