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Police in Utah killed a 25-year-old during a traffic stop this month after he refused to obey commands and an officer said he had a gun, body camera video released Wednesday reveals.
Video presented to reporters by Farmington Police Chief Eric Johnsen — who called the incident “a tragic ending to what started out as an everyday traffic stop” — shows five officers’ fatal shooting of Chase Allan on March 1 after an officer pulled Allan over for what authorities said was an illegitimate license plate.
The video was a compilation pulled from the five officers’ body cameras and the dashboard camera of the officer who pulled Allan over. It was also interspersed with brief written summaries of what police claimed happened.
The day after the deadly shooting, Farmington police said in a statement that “the driver became non-compliant with the initial officer.”
The initial announcement did not mention that the officers started shooting after one yelled “gun!” and that a gun was later found on the floor of Allan’s car, as the newly released video shows.
The five officers have been placed on administrative leave under department policy during an investigation by the Davis County Critical Incident Protocol Team, which is made up of a variety of investigators.
Johnsen conceded Wednesday that the video “is only one piece of information in the incident and the only information available to us at the moment.”
Body camera video shows encounter
The encounter occurred just after 3:20 p.m., when the officer pulled Allan over for a traffic stop at 145 E. State St. in Farmington, about 17 miles north of Salt Lake City, according to the information released March 2.
The video shows Allan pulling into a parking lot after having been trailed by the police officer. The officer approaches the car, and Allan “immediately asserts his right to not obey the laws of the land, at least the reason for this traffic stop,” Johnsen told reporters. Allan was alone, police said.
When the officer tells Allan the car lacks registration, Allan replied that he doesn’t need registration and won’t answer questions, and the first officer calls for backup.
The video shows that Allan kept the window mostly rolled up during the encounter and that he appeared to be recording the interaction on his phone.
The officer repeatedly asks Allan to provide identification, which he initially refuses to do before he provides a passport listing his name as Chase Allen. He then claims “that is not me,” and the officer asks him whether he has a fraudulent passport before he orders him out of the vehicle.
A second officer who had arrived as backup threatens to break Allan’s window and pull him out if he doesn’t get out voluntarily.
Allan refuses to get out of the car and warns the officers they will “have an issue” if they proceed as they have been.
He then transfers the phone with which he is recording the incident from his right hand to his left hand. He simultaneously moves his coat back to reveal a holster on his right hip, the video shows. No gun is visible at that point on the video.
The officer who pulled Allan over then opens the door of the car. That’s when, police say, Allan’s hand moves toward his right hip, where his holster is. Another officer tries to remove Allan from the car as the others stand behind him, and at least one of the officers begins yelling, “Gun!”
The five officers begin to back away from the car and shoot into it. They stop shooting when one of them repeatedly yells, “Cease fire,” the video shows.
The officers remove Allan from the car. The holster on his hip was empty, and a gun was on the floorboard just below the driver’s seat, the video shows.
Officers handcuffed Allan while he was unresponsive and facedown on the pavement, according to more extensive body camera video provided to NBC News. Officers reported a possible head wound and multiple chest wounds, according to the video. The more extensive video blurs Allan’s body after the shooting.
Officers haven’t claimed that Allan returned fire.
Emergency medical personnel provided medical aid at the scene, and Allan was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said. The officers were physically unharmed.
Family calls it a ‘brutal murder’
Allan’s family called it a “brutal murder” in a statement the day after his death, claiming they had been “stonewalled by police.” They also said they found out about the shooting through local media coverage rather than directly from law enforcement, NBC affiliate KSL of Salt Lake City reported.
Johnsen said police had “been working diligently to collect the facts,” KSL reported.
Relatives described Allan as a “loving soul” who graduated from Utah State University and had been studying law the last few years, adding that he was “a patriot doing what he could to defend the people’s freedom and liberty in his community,” KSL reported.
Allan is the third person to have died in police-involved shootings in Utah this year, according to a database maintained by The Washington Post.
Cristian Santana contributed.
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