South Ogden Police Department

OGDEN — Ogden patrol officers were not required to wear protective body armor vests when they responded to a fierce Jan. 4 gun battle that left one lawman dead and five others wounded.

At the time of the shootout, police department policy only required officers to purchase vests through a federal grant reimbursement program but did not state anything about wearing them, said Ogden Police Chief Mike Ashment.

The policy was changed in January after the shooting to require all uniform, crime reduction, community policing and traffic officers to wear body armor, Ashment said.

SOUTH OGDEN -- The South Ogden Police Department will have an informational session about sex offenders at 7 p.m. today in the community room of its building at 3950 S. Adams Ave.

The department wants to increase public awareness of sex offenders in the community and let the public know what the police are doing to monitor offenders. The class is free and open to the public.

SOUTH OGDEN -- Children sat along the curb Tuesday in front of a large hook and ladder fire truck and an old car and watched with mouths open as firefighters flattened the car's tires, broke its windows and used all tools necessary to drag a pretend person out of a car to demonstrate how firefighters work to save lives.

The demonstration was a small part of South Ogden's participation in the nation's 28th annual National Night Out. Communities nationwide participated in the event with other local entities across Utah.

Marci Edwards, director of department affairs for the South Ogden Police Department, said it was South Ogden's third year participating. Edwards said the department has always tried to hold safety evenings, but it made sense to participate in the national night and to get as many community partners as possible to participate.

SOUTH OGDEN -- Ray "Rusty" Underwood brightened the school year for thousands of drivers, waving to cars as they whizzed by on U.S. 89 in South Ogden each morning.

But his gestures stopped a couple of weeks ago, leaving his motoring friends wondering why.

Underwood has been keeping his hands in his pockets lately because he said he was told by his supervisor to stop waving.

SOUTH OGDEN -- A man shot and killed by a South Ogden patrolman Thursday morning had burglarized a home minutes earlier and shot at the officer with a gun stolen in a burglary the day before, Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said Friday.