A town of roughly 13,000 people in northern Utah was reeling Monday after two police officers were fatally shot and a sheriff’s deputy was wounded while responding to a domestic disturbance call Sunday night.
The gunman was taken into custody after bystanders intervened to help persuade him to put his weapon down, authorities said.
The episode began just after 9 p.m. local time Sunday in Tremonton, a city roughly 20 miles south of the Idaho border.
An officer from the Tremonton Garland Police Department who had responded to the domestic disturbance call was speaking with a person at the residence when a man came out and opened fire, “striking and killing the officer,” according to a statement from the Brigham City Police Department. The man then shot a second Tremonton Garland officer, killing him. The suspect then fired several rounds into the vehicle of a deputy from the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office who had also responded, injuring him and his police dog. They were both in fair condition, authorities said.
The mayor of Tremonton, Lyle Holmgren, said it felt as though the entire city was in shock. The town is in Box Elder County, a sparsely populated region that is spread over 5,781 square miles and named for the box elder trees that abound there. The area is known for being the site of the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the 1869 feat memorialized nearby at the Golden Spike National Historical Park.
“We’re a tight-knit community,” Holmgren said. “It was just a regular Sunday until it wasn’t.”
Officials declined to release the name of the man who had been arrested. Sheriff’s department booking records in nearby Weber County identified him as Ryan M. Bate, 32, who was booked into jail on charges of aggravated murder Monday and was being held without bail. Bate lived at the address where the shooting took place.
A woman who also lives at the house declined to comment Monday. In 2019, the woman filed for a temporary protective order against Bate, which was granted, according to court records.
Authorities identified the officers who were killed as Sgt. Lee Sorensen and officer Eric Estrada.
Sorensen, 56, had been at the department for 16 years and had recently been promoted into his role, according to a news release posted by the city of Tremonton. He is survived by his children and his wife, with whom he shared an award for their positive impact on the city of Garland. Estrada, 31, was also a father and a husband and had worked in law enforcement for about eight years.
Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah ordered that flags be flown at half-staff at all state facilities in honor of Sorensen and Estrada.
Jerrie Heath, who lives a few houses away from the scene, said the neighborhood is typically so quiet “you could hear dogs barking from like four blocks away.” She described it as full of retirees and some young families.
On Sunday night about 9 p.m., Heath had paused the video game she and her husband were playing and was in the bathroom when, she said, she heard a series of gunshots. The couple corralled everyone in the house, including their four children, and made sure the doors were locked. Then Heath, 40, and her husband ventured outside.
“Within seconds, our whole block was shut down,” she said.
Police officers quickly told them it would be safer to go back inside. For the rest of the night, she said, she heard officers and sheriff’s deputies yelling and vehicles and helicopters coming and going.
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