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MAGNA — An armed man was shot and killed by police early Wednesday after officers thought he had entered a random home and then possibly shot a woman in the street.
By Wednesday afternoon, police confirmed that the man, 48-year-old Joseph Black, had entered his own house and the woman who walked out of the house next to him was his adult daughter.
The string of events began just after midnight when 911 dispatchers began receiving multiple reports of shots fired in the area of 3300 S. 7615 West. Callers reported that a man was walking around the neighborhood and randomly shooting a rifle in the air, said Unified Police Sgt. Melody Cutler.
The first officers arriving to the area spotted Black from a couple of streets away, and then saw him enter a home, Cutler said. The officers were also able to determine that a woman was inside. At that point, not knowing who the man was or what was happening, the officers were concerned about a possible hostage situation, she said.
As the officers rushed toward the house, Black and a woman exited a short time later.
Cutler said Black again fired his rifle and the woman immediately dropped to the ground. Believing the woman had just been shot, officers opened fire on Black. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Afterward, police discovered that the woman had not been shot and was not injured. It was not immediately known Wednesday what direction Black's rifle was pointing when he fired or where his shot ended up.
A protocol team will now conduct an officer-involved critical incident investigation, this one headed up by detectives from the Salt Lake City Police Department.
"What's happening now is there will be an investigation," Cutler said. "The team will come out here, they'll collect all the evidence, interview all the witnesses, check for video surveillance."
Cutler said officers canvassed the neighborhood after the shooting to determine whether any of the earlier shots that were fired had injured anyone. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were no reports of injuries.
