- Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill ruled the police shooting of Erik Bertelsen legally justified.
- Bertelsen stabbed and killed his parents Jan. 1 after mental health issues post-prison release.
- Gill highlights systemic failures in mental health support within the criminal justice system.
SALT LAKE CITY — Whether the shooting death of a man in West Valley City on Jan. 1 by a police officer was legally justified was never in question.
Erik Roland Bertelsen, 35, was caught in the act of actively stabbing his parents when police entered the parents' home at 3310 W. Enterado Ave. West Valley police officer Daniel Nielson fired two rounds, striking Bertelsen in the head and killing him.
On Friday, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced that the use of lethal force was legally justified, calling it a "straightforward" review.
But the bigger picture in this tragic case, according to Gill, is how Bertelsen got to that point and what lessons can be learned from it.
"To me, this was like the paradigm of horrors of all horrors and paradigm of the tragedy of all tragedies," Gill said Friday during a press conference to explain his team's findings. "This incident, for us, highlights our fragmented, broken, underfunded and overwhelmed system that we have."
Bertelsen was paroled from the Utah State Prison on Dec. 17. In less than three weeks from his release until the tragedy on Jan. 1, Bertelsen:
- Began to self-medicate with illegal drugs.
- Was "pink sheeted," or involuntarily committed to a psychiatric unit at a hospital, and released three times, including an incident just five days after being released from prison in which police found him lying in the middle of the road allegedly hoping he would be run over.
- Even contacted Adult Probation and Parole himself.
On Jan. 1, West Valley police went to the home of Terri Bertelsen, 63, and Kerry Bertelsen, 67, after receiving a 911 call. No one talked to emergency dispatchers, but the line remained open and the sounds of Bertelsen attacking his parents could be heard. Gill had to pause Friday and became emotional as a portion of the disturbing 911 call was played.
The deaths of Terri and Kerry Bertelsen were exceptionally brutal. Police found blood evidence throughout the house, including in the stairwell, walls and even the ceiling.
When three officers arrived at the home, they could see movement from the basement window.
"Is he stabbing someone?" an officer is heard asking on body camera video.
Three officers quickly went to the basement door and immediately saw what appeared to be Bertelsen making stabbing motions while kneeling over one of his parents.
"(I saw) a male downstairs just stabbing somebody, repeatedly stabbing," one officer told investigators. "Just going to town."
"We've got two down, suspect down. Two possibly (dead)," an officer is heard on bodycam video after the shots were fired, advising others on his police radio.
"In this entire review, at least for me, there were multiple victims here. Obviously, the two parents who are slain by their kid, this person who is in state of psychosis and mental illness, the poor officer who has to be put in that position and to use that terrible but necessary force, the other officers who were there and who had to witness it, and I think ultimately all of us," Gill said Friday.
In September, Gill held a symposium at his office with state, county and private health professionals, state representatives, city council members, defense attorneys and others to discuss mental health and the criminal justice system. Nationally, he said an estimated 1 in 4 police shootings involve someone with mental health issues. In Salt Lake County, he said between 30% and 40% of the police shootings he reviews involve a person experiencing mental illness.
"I want to be very clear, I am not pointing a finger at anyone. I am a part of this system. All of us are. So yeah, I think the prisons are overwhelmed, they're understaffed. The Adult Probation and Parole agents are overwhelmed. They're underfunded and understaffed. … The courts are overwhelmed. Prosecutors are overwhelmed. There's an intersection of this kind of acute nature of mental illness within the criminal justice system," Gill said.
"We, as a society, from this absolute tragedy, there's an opportunity for us to observe and learn something from this."
Gill says he is hopeful, however, by events such as the Huntsman Mental Health Institute opening earlier this year. The institute offers 24-7 mental health help at no cost and has already seen more than 5,000 people in its first six months of operation.
