Back to the Utah State Aggies Newsfeed

DA rules Salt Lake City officer was justified in shooting a man fleeing into an occupied office building

The Salt Lake County District Attorney announced Thursday that he has declined to file charges against a Salt Lake City officer who fired his gun at a man fleeing officers into an occupied downtown office building.

District Attorney Sim Gill said filing charges “would be entirely inconsistent with the evidence presented,” saying Officer Blake Noble “made a reasoned, split-second decision” to shoot only after seeing 35-year-old Michael Zahn pull out his own firearm, according to a letter Gill sent to SLCPD Chief Mike Brown.

The letter was also delivered to West Valley Police Chief Colleen Jacobs. As per the valley-wide officer-involved critical incident protocol, an outside agency, West Valley City, investigated the shooting.