Following protocol and local ordinance, the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) has released body-worn camera footage from a May 27 officer-involved shooting, which ended with a 60-year-old man, Christian Thomas Allen, dead at the scene. According to SLCPD, which details accounts of the events leading up to the incident, it was reported that officers responded to a call of a domestic-violence-burglary in progress at 2963 South Judith Street shortly after midnight.
The call came from a woman identified only as C.A., who alleged her ex-husband, violating a protective order, had forcibly entered her home and was threatening to commit an act of extreme violence. She, along with her two teenage children, was hiding in a locked bedroom, as per SLCPD. The 911 call captured Allen’s threats, including one where he claimed to have doused himself in gasoline and was intending to set himself alight, a claim substantiated by the smell of gasoline once the police arrived on the scene.
When officers arrived, a subject, later identified as Allen, was visible inside the residence, and soon after forcing entry, was confronted by officers while holding a large knife. Footage from the body-worn cameras released by the SLCPD shows officers repeatedly issuing loud commands to Allen to drop the weapon before he advanced toward them, prompting two officers to discharge their firearms…