Police: Sex abuse suspect fatally shoots himself during Kaysville traffic stop
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KAYSVILLE — A man facing child sexual abuse charges fatally shot himself while a Davis County sheriff’s deputy was making a traffic stop Wednesday, Kaysville police and the county attorney’s office said.
The deputy pulled over the 39-year-old Fruit Heights man at about 5:30 p.m. and was walking to the vehicle when the man opened the door, “which kind of spooked” the deputy, Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said Thursday. “Next thing they know they hear a shot. Fortunately he didn’t try to take any cops on his way down.”
According to court records, the man was charged last week in 2nd District Court with four first-degree felony child sexual abuse charges and a judge signed an arrest warrant. Prosecutors filed a motion requesting that the man be held without bail. His attorney responded with a document saying the man had no criminal history and is not a flight risk or a danger to anyone, and should be granted bail. The attorney said his client denied the charges.
Kaysville police said in a social media post that officers responded to the site of the shooting, 475 S. Main St. “The deputy reported seeing the man was holding a shotgun to his chest,” police said. The man was dead at the scene.
The shooting occurred near Davis High School and the Davis Technical College, but Kaysville police said the incident had nothing to do with those institutions.
Kaysville police said they were assisting in the investigation by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office. Rawlings said his office also is investigating.
Davis County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Stephanie Dinsmore on Thursday confirmed the reports of the incident by the other agencies. She added that deputies had tried to serve the arrest warrant earlier in the day, but the man was not home. Then a deputy spotted the man and made a traffic stop.
She said counseling and peer support would be available to the deputy. “Witnessing something like that is obviously horrific,” she said.
Dinsmore said sheriff’s officials would be deferring to Kaysville police for further information. She said the sheriff’s office was conducting its own investigation as well.
The Standard-Examiner does not normally report suicides, except when they occur under unusual circumstances, or report the names of people who die by suicide.