Click here to hear the dispatch tapes
OGDEN -- It begins with a frantic call for help from a police officer identified as Whiskey Seven.
His voice is tinged with urgency and desperation at the start of dispatch tapes from a Jan. 4 shooting that killed Ogden Officer Jared Francom and wounded five other officers.
"We've got shots fired," Whiskey Seven shouts into his police radio. "We've got officers hit. I need medical. I need additional units."
The Standard-Examiner obtained the dispatch tapes from the Weber County Attorney's Office through a state Government Records Access and Management Act request.
Francom was killed while executing a search warrant with the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force at Matthew David Stewart's home, 3268 Jackson Ave.
Stewart, 37, was also wounded in the shootout and was discharged from the hospital on Monday. He was immediately booked into Weber County Jail on eight felony counts, including aggravated murder, which could result in the death penalty.
He is slated to make his first court appearance this morning via a video linkup from jail.
The dispatch tapes paint a chaotic scene at Stewart's home as police come under attack and worry about fellow officers getting caught in the crossfire.
In the early minutes of one of three tapes released, an officer tells a dispatcher to warn other law enforcement personnel converging on the scene about gunfire from the suspect.
"Be advised shots are being fired out in the area," the officer says. "All officers take cover. Don't come on to scene."
As more officers arrive at Stewart's house, they initially take up defensive positions, then begin to surround the dwelling.
"Everybody get in your position of cover," an officer says. "Set up a perimeter. I want all four corners. Somebody get in the backyard. Set up a perimeter right now."
At the 5-minute-and-30-second mark on the tape, an officer apparently gets a glimpse of the shooter.
"There is somebody at the rear of this place," the officer tells the dispatcher.
Seconds later, the officer provides more information about the suspect's location followed by what sounds like rapid gunfire.
"We've got a man on the southeast side," he says. "He's climbing out the back window."
Another policeman can be heard on the tape saying he has retrieved one of the wounded officers.
"I've got the downed officer at 33rd and Jackson," he tells the dispatcher. "He's going to be in my car."
On another channel, an officer is heard telling other officers not to wait for ambulances and to load the wounded in police cars and take them to McKay-Dee Hospital.
Then officers again come under fire and turn their attention to pinpointing the location of the shooter.
"We've got movement, movement in the shed," an officer says.
Another officer worries that the shooter may be reloading to prepare to fire from the shed. "Guys, sounds like he racking a gun up there."
Another officer, who says he is taking tactical control of the operation, tells the dispatcher he plans to send law enforcement personnel into the house to prevent the shooter from re-entering.
In addition, an officer warns other personnel that they could get caught in crossfire.
"Northeast of the shed are in crossfire position," he says on the tape. "You need to give your location. If we start shooting in that direction, we are going to hit you. Advise where you're at."
About 17 minutes after the shooting starts, the wounded suspect is taken into custody.
After the suspect is apprehended, officers debate which hospital he should be taken to.
Officers are heard saying that he can't go to McKay-Dee Hospital or Ogden Regional Medical Center because that's where the wounded officers have been taken.
"I guess he can go to Davis County (Hospital and Medical Center)," one officer says on the recording.
About five minutes later, the dispatcher tells the officers that medical personnel have determined that the suspect likely wouldn't survive being transported to Davis Hospital, which is in Layton, and asks if he can be taken instead to McKay-Dee Hospital.
An officer gives his permission. "I guess you've got to err on the side of caution. Send him where they have to go."
About 13 minutes after being taken into custody, the suspect is transported to Ogden Regional Medical Center.
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