Video: Interview with Box Elder County Sheriff Lynn Yeates about fatal shooting of man by deputy.
CORINNE — Investigators are still trying to figure out why a Sandy man apparently tried to run over a Box Elder County sheriff’s deputy Friday evening, forcing the deputy to shoot him.
Chief Deputy Kevin Potter on Saturday identified the dead man as Troy Clark Burkinshaw, 52, who has a Sandy address.
Beyond that, he said he has no new details of the situation. He said investigators are still trying to figure out why Burkinshaw apparently fled from a deputy just checking his driver's license and then tried to hit that deputy with his car.
Burkinshaw was shot shortly after 8 p.m. in an incident that started in Corinne along Highway 13. A deputy on patrol spotted a Volkswagen pulled over on the side of the road and saw a man near the car, urinating.
Potter said the man “was standing right there, making no effort to hide himself” behind a tree or bush, “so it was a situation where the deputy had to stop.”
Sheriff Lynn Yeates said Friday night the deputy took the man’s license and registration and went back to his patrol vehicle to run the information. The man took off in his car, and the deputy followed.
Yeates said the driver twice tried to hit the deputy’s vehicle during the pursuit.
After the driver was eventually cornered near 2250 North and 4100 West, a deputy approached the car, but the driver accelerated and the deputy fired his weapon, killing the driver.
Roseann Olson, who lives near the intersection, said she saw a black compact car traveling on 2250 North, followed by a police vehicle with lights and siren on.
Olson said the black car turned onto 4100 West, heading south. The car then turned left onto a dirt road and stopped, then turned around, apparently when the driver realized it was a dead end.
She then heard what she described as three gunshots.
The deputy, whose name was not released, has been placed on administrative leave.
Potter said Saturday the deputy is “pretty shaken up” by the situation.
“The man tried to kill him,” Potter said, forcing the deputy to defend himself.
Potter said that under the department’s standing policy for an officer-involved shooting, the deputy is required to get counseling before he can return to duty.
The investigation is being handled by a team that includes officers from Brigham City and Tremonton and one detective from the sheriff’s department.
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