$400K settlement for family of driver fatally shot by South Ogden officer
SOUTH OGDEN — South Ogden City has agreed to pay a $400,000 out-of-court settlement to the family of a man who was shot to death by a police officer at the conclusion of a low-speed chase on Dec. 27, 2019.
A civil suit filed on behalf of the parents and children of Fredrick Jeremy Atkin, 42, accused the city and South Ogden Officer Christopher Freestone of employing unconstitutionally excessive force when the officer ran up to Atkin’s slowly moving Ford Mustang and fired a shot while leaning into the passenger window intending to put the vehicle in park.
Freestone and city attorneys said the officer saw Atkin reach for something and the car’s engine revved, putting Freestone in fear that Atkin was grabbing for a gun and trying to run over another officer. The suit alleged that Freestone wrongfully used deadly force even though Atkin was not speeding and no gun was found.
Weeks after the shooting, the city awarded Freestone its Medal of Valor “for courageous performance of duty, involving high risk and imminent danger in the line of duty.” Weber County Attorney Christopher Allred later determined that Freestone was reasonably justified in using force because other officers during the chase had said in radio messages that they feared Atkin was armed and was acting erratically.
In U.S. District Court papers filed earlier this month, attorney Heather White, representing the city and Freestone, said the settlement is intended to cover the plaintiffs’ reasonable attorneys’ fees, expenses and costs in pursuing the claims.
“This offer is not an admission of liability, and any liability is expressly denied,” the document said. Efforts to reach White were not immediately successful, but she said in an interview when settlement talks began in August, “We are always looking at the case from an insurance standpoint — will it cost more to go to trial than it is to settle it?”
Settlement funds apparently will be paid by the Utah Local Governments Trust, which pools liability risks for hundreds of government entities in the state. Trust members pay annual premiums. The trust provides attorneys to defend against suits and it pays out any judgments against the government entities involved. A call to South Ogden City Manager Matt Dixon was not immediately returned.
The civil suit was filed by Idaho attorney Blake Atkin, a cousin of Jeremy Atkin’s father. He did not immediately return a call about the settlement.
The fatal incident began when Atkin ran a red light on Wall Avenue and failed to stop when an Ogden officer tried to pull him over. For the next 40 minutes, Ogden, South Ogden and Riverdale officers followed. Atkin would not stop and eluded attempts by police to pop his tires with road spikes.
As Atkin approached the intersection of Wall Avenue and Riverdale Road, Freestone pulled alongside and shouted at Atkin through the Mustang’s open passenger window to stop. Freestone jumped out of his patrol car and rushed to the passenger side.
During Allred’s investigation, Freestone exercised his right not to talk to county attorney’s investigators. But in a court deposition last March, Freestone said his goal was to put the car in park, then get the keys out of the ignition, both with his right hand. But as Atkin moved his hand toward the console or a pocket and the car revved, Freestone said he decided to fire. “It was not an accidental shooting,” he said.
In the deposition, Blake Atkin quizzed Freestone about his use of obscenities as he yelled at Jeremy Atkin. In police audio from the pursuit, Freestone repeatedly shouted at Atkin to “Stop the f—— car.” Atkin asked if Freestone was angry with Atkin.
“No, I wasn’t angry with him,” Freestone said. “I don’t like his decisions. I mean, he’s obviously making incorrect ones. And I’m angry that he’s putting officers in danger, the public. But him as a person, I didn’t have any feelings toward him in general.”
There was some disagreement among police officers interviewed in Allred’s investigation about the necessity of using deadly force against the fleeing driver.
One officer said the Mustang was driving “all over the road,” but he felt there was no danger to the public from Atkin’s driving in the context of police being able to stop him. There was “ample coverage” of law enforcement to get the car stopped, the officer said.
But another officer said, “I honestly believed this dude was going to be producing a handgun. Everything I heard from Ogden (officers on police radio) and everything he was showing me at that time, I was waiting for something to happen.”
Blake Atkin said in an interview before the suit was filed that family members watched a presentation by county investigators into the shooting, including dash cam video. One or more of the officers said they had dealt with Atkin before and knew he had used methamphetamine and had psychological problems and depression, Blake Atkin said.
“We suspected that was a factor in their decision not to press him,” he said, adding that the family was shocked then to see on the police video that Freestone “ran up to the passenger window, reached through and shot Jeremy dead.”
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- In this screen grab from South Ogden police dash cam video, Fredrick Jeremy Atkin’s Ford Mustang is seen just before Officer Chris Freestone leaned into the passenger window. Police had been pursuing Atkin, who was shot and killed Dec. 27, 2019.
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- Fredrick Jeremy Atkin
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- Christopher Freestone