Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
TAYLORSVILLE — A man trying to get away from police died early Thursday after crashing into a pole.
About 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, a Taylorsville police officer spotted a Chrysler 200 near 4200 S. Redwood that was listed as "stolen" out of North Salt Lake and had a license plate on it that was stolen out of West Valley City, said Taylorsville Police Sgt. Jake Hill. Before the officer attempted to pull over the vehicle, he arranged to have other officers in place in case the vehicle fled, including the Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter.
When the officer attempted to pull the vehicle over, the driver sped away, Hill said. Officers in the area kept surveillance on the vehicle but said they did not engage in a chase. Near 4100 South and 1300 West, a Taylorsville officer spiked some of the vehicle's tires, and then a short time later, a second set of spikes were deployed.
The car continued to drive at a slower speed, however, through residential areas. About 12:10 a.m. Thursday, as the vehicle headed north on Atherton Drive (4370 South), the driver failed to negotiate a turn near 1200 West and crashed into a pole, Hill said. Two men — Jeremy Arthur Lettow, 40, of Salt Lake City, and a passenger — were taken to a local hospital with what appeared to be leg injuries, Hill said. Several hours later, however, police were notified that Lettow had died from his injuries.
Because of that, an officer-involved critical incident protocol team was called. The Unified Police Department was assigned to investigate the crash. Investigators will look into how fast the car was going when it hit the pole as well as Lettow's cause of death.
An updated condition on his passenger was not available Thursday.
According to court records, Lettow's most recent arrest was on Feb. 2 when police say he hit two others cars while driving a stolen vehicle near 5400 South and 2700 West and then ran from the scene.
