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SALT LAKE CITY — A man is still in the hospital after a traffic stop in Salt Lake City in the middle of the night ended in gunfire earlier this week. And police say pulling cars over is one of the most dangerous things they do.
Utah Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Ian Adams says traffic stops are called routine because of what happens most of the time.
"Officers do thousands and thousands of these in a career, and most officers can go their whole career without seeing one that erupts in gunfire, but occasionally there is one," he says.
Tuesday morning’s traffic stop on State Street ended with gunfire. Sgt. Cory Wride and Sgt. Derek Johnson were killed after traffic stops. And just last month, a Salt Lake City police officer was hit by a driver who sped away after being pulled over near California Avenue.
Adams says what occurs can be unexpected.
"An officer can only react to behavior. An officer at the end of the day, is going to observe behavior and then react to it," Adams says.
Adams says there's not really a good way to know ahead of time that someone has a bad intent. It's up to the officer to stay vigilant.
