Family Awarded Just Cents After Man Killed in His Own House by Police
UPDATE: Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill ruled on July 22 — x days subsequently The Salt Lake Tribune published this commodity — that Sgt. Tyler Longman acted within the law when he shot Michael Chad Breinholt and won't face charges.
The concluding words Michael Chad Breinholt heard were, "You're most to die, my friend."
And so a W Valley Urban center police sergeant pulled the trigger.
Breinholt'south mother, Susan Neese, has seen the final moments of her 31-yr-old son's life. The body camera footage from Aug. 23, 2019, shows he was intoxicated at the police department.
With his hands cuffed behind his dorsum, he briefly wrestled with two officers. 1 screamed that Breinholt was grabbing his holstered gun. Sgt. Tyler Longman rushed into the room, fabricated his proclamation and fired.
"He took the time to think about that, to say those words," Neese said in a contempo interview. "And and so aim and shoot. And kill Republic of chad."
Watching the video was heartbreaking for Breinholt'due south family members. That shock deepened when their chaser said this wasn't the first time Longman had shot and killed someone while on duty.
Information technology was his tertiary.
"Republic of chad would nevertheless be here had something happened to that officer," his brother, Chase Breinholt, said. "If he could have been put on some other duty or permit get or if at that place was something put in place after taking the first person'due south life. Definitely afterwards [taking] a 2nd person's life. Why is he still carrying a gun?"
Nearly 2 years after Breinholt died, his family unit is left with many questions, including: Will Longman face charges for the shooting?
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill will make the decision — as he does with all police shootings in his jurisdiction. It's unclear when that volition happen or why the legal review has taken and then long. There is only one older police shooting case that's still pending.
Longman is one of 38 Utah officers who have been in more than than one shooting in the past sixteen years, according to a Salt Lake Tribune database, expanded with help from FRONTLINE. He is among six Due west Valley Urban center officers, both current and sometime, who have fired more than once.
West Valley City's incident review committee determined Longman didn't violate policy, and he's back on duty afterwards being on authoritative exit, which is standard protocol later a police force shooting. His deportment are as well defended by Utah'due south Fraternal Guild of Law.
West Valley City police declined to answer questions most the shooting because information technology is still pending with the district chaser's office. Longman's attorney also declined to annotate. Prosecutors ruled that his actions were legally justified in his first two shootings.
Previously, the public had seen just a sliver of what happened to Breinholt: a nine-minute edited video created by the constabulary department's public relations team.
The Table salt Lake Tribune sought the unedited video during a six-month record dispute. West Valley City didn't want to release information technology while Gill's investigation was pending, but Utah's State Records Committee sided with The Tribune and required the law to provide the more expansive view of this highly unusual shooting of a handcuffed man within a police force station.
At the request of The Tribune, Randy Shrewsberry, the executive director of the Constitute for Criminal Justice Training Reform, watched the full footage of what happened that August evening.
His determination: "I saw nada at all for which I believe that this was a necessary shooting."
A struggle with addiction
A memorial website includes a video of Breinholt at 17 telling a television receiver reporter what it was like to be a immature person addicted to drugs and booze.
"Information technology's a fast screw," he says. "Information technology'southward a glace slope. And earlier you know it, you're stealing from your own family, breaking into houses, breaking into cars — annihilation yous could practise to get an 60 minutes-and-a-half high."
Neese, his female parent, told The Tribune that Breinholt struggled subsequently his father died. He was 15. At first, he turned to music to cope. At some signal, he started using drugs. He had some run-ins with police for theft and drug possession.
"Addiction was a part of Chad's life," Neese said. "Same every bit with him trying to recover from information technology, consistently and constantly."
Susan Neese holds a photo of her son, Chad Breinholt, in her dwelling house in Plainfield, Illinois on April 22, 2021. (Kristan Lieb | Special to The Salt Lake Tribune)
When Neese thinks about her son, she remembers how funny he was. She remembers him crying in the movie theatre while watching "The Notebook" as a kid, a retentiveness that reminds her of how sensitive he could be. He loved music, Neese said, and exploring his Christian faith. She said both helped him as he struggled with addiction and feet.
"He had been doing actually good," she said. "The strongest he had been in a few years before he died. He was strongest in his faith, and in his music and in customs involvement with the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake Urban center. And that summer, he started to relapse."
Neese said she talked with her son on the day he died. They talked about jubilant their birthdays together, and he told her about the treatment centers he was trying to go into and the appointments he had made to assistance him get sober.
A photograph of Chad Breinholt in his family's dwelling in Plainfield, Illinois, on April 22, 2021. Breinholt'due south family has been waiting for two years to hear if the district attorney volition bring charges against the police officer who killed him. (Kristan Lieb | Special to The Tribune)
He wanted help, she said.
The shooting
Breinholt showed upwardly intoxicated at his girlfriend's workplace. Her co-worker called the police.
The newly released body photographic camera footage shows Breinholt'due south girlfriend and co-worker told Officers Matt Lane and Taylor Atkin they were mostly concerned for his wellness considering he said he'd taken a lot of pills, and his breath smelled like alcohol.
"It seems like he only wants to commit suicide," his girlfriend told constabulary, later adding: "He just said that he took all those pills so he'll die."
The officers didn't see Breinholt behind the wheel, only surveillance footage showed he had driven a car. Breinholt blew a blood booze level of 0.162 — more than than three times Utah'south legal limit of 0.05.
Lane arrested him. The officer searched his pockets and found no weapons. Breinholt was placed in a patrol automobile, according to the footage.
Officers spent nigh ii hours with Breinholt in the DUI processing room at law headquarters, some of it included mundane moments when they filled out papers or waited for aid with an electronic warrant.
At some points, the officers paid little attention to Breinholt as he cried and asked for help. At others, they threatened to charge him with more crimes: A charge for giving a imitation name. A felony for this being his tertiary DUI. Another felony for destroying constabulary property, subsequently Breinholt began chewing on a Breathalyzer cord.
Body camera footage shows Michael Chad Breinholt at the Due west Valley Metropolis Law Section on Aug. 23, 2019. Sgt. Tyler Longman shot and killed Breinholt afterwards the handcuffed human reached for another officer's gun. (Courtesy Due west Valley City police)
Breinholt, at one moment, flopped onto the concrete floor crying, his easily however cuffed behind his back.
Lane asked a adult female who had been doing a ride-forth: "So y'all all the same want to be a cop, huh?" She nodded yes.
"That's the spirit," Lane said.
"That's the West Valley spirit," Atkin, the other officer, said, as Breinholt moaned.
The officers left Breinholt on the floor for more than than xi minutes every bit they waited for a medical coiffure with the fire department to check on him. They told the crew Breinholt took medication simply didn't mention his girlfriend's concerns that he was possibly suicidal.
Afterward he was cleared, an officer hoisted Breinholt back into the chair.
"You lot're fine," he said. "Stay correct there."
Longman wasn't office of the initial abort, the video shows, but came to the police station because Lane and Atkin were newer officers who needed aid filling out an electronic warrant.
The video shows that Breinholt asked officers to take him to the Huntsman Mental Health Constitute, known as "UNI," but the officers refused.
"I'm not going to sit down here all night and play games with y'all," Longman told Breinholt. "You've already wasted our fire section's time by having them come up out for some bullsh–, OK? I'm not taking you lot to UNI, I'1000 taking you to jail."
Body photographic camera footage shows Sgt. Tyler Longman at the Due west Valley City Police Section on Aug. 23, 2019. Longman shot and killed Michael Republic of chad Breinholt after the handcuffed man reached for another officer's gun. (Courtesy W Valley City police force)
Non long later on that, Breinholt stood and told Atkin, "I take a gun in my pants."
The officer laughed.
"Adept effort," Atkin said, before telling some other officer: "Nosotros checked him. Does that count every bit a threat of violence if he reached into his pants and said, 'I accept a gun in my pants?'"
Soon afterward, Breinholt tried to accept off his shoe. Atkin and then asked him, "Is there a gun in your shoe, too?"
Moments later, Breinholt stood up again. Atkin grabbed his shirt and guided him back to the chair equally Breinholt murmured, "In that location's a gun in my shoe."
Atkin didn't appear alarmed. He told Breinholt to sit down down, and "I'll get the gun out."
The officer left him there for a moment and came dorsum as Breinholt mumbled, "At that place's a gun in my seat."
"Stay down," Atkin responded, his paw on Breinholt's chest.
Atkin decided to take Breinholt's shoe, which Breinholt refused to give. Atkin and another officeholder, Raymond Wilhelm, then lifted Breinholt out of the chair to accept the shoe — as Longman stood exterior the small room.
"Oh f—, he'due south got my gun!" Atkin yelled. "He's got my gun!"
The video appears to show Breinholt, even so handcuffed, with his manus on the officer'south gun as Wilhelm and Atkin started to wrestle with him. The gun was non removed from its holster.
Longman rushed into the room, pulling his firearm as he grabbed Breinholt's head. He yelled, "Yous're almost to die, my friend," and fired the fatal shot.
It all happened in half-dozen seconds.
One officeholder, three shootings
When West Valley Metropolis hired Longman in 2006, he told a detective he always wanted to exist an officer. He wanted to practise something practiced for the community, and he respected the chore, Longman said, co-ordinate to his groundwork investigation obtained by The Tribune.
I of his relatives told the detective that Longman was the "golden boy" in their family unit, and was well-liked by his friends. He did take a temper, those who knew him said, but they felt he could proceed it under control and would be a good officeholder.
Longman has no serious tape of disciplinary actions and over time has been promoted to sergeant. What he does take is a record of firing his gun.
Longman'south first shooting took place a twelvemonth into his police career.
On Aug. 22, 2007, West Valley Urban center Officer Kevin Salmon spotted Christopher Cotton sleeping in a Mitsubishi Eclipse parked at a 7-Eleven. The store employees said information technology was OK for Cotton, 22, to be there, and Salmon left. When Salmon returned ii hours later on, Cotton wool was all the same comatose. This time the employees told the police officer they wanted the human to go out because he was in a handicapped-accessible parking stall.
Salmon called for backup, and Longman arrived.
Salmon later told investigators he knocked on the automobile window to wake up Cotton, and the man was "acting nervous." The officer said he then spotted Cotton holding a gun, which he allegedly pointed at Salmon.
That'south when Salmon started shooting while standing on the driver's side. Longman, hearing a "pop," besides began firing from the passenger side, he told investigators.
Cotton died in the car.
This shooting took place before bodycams were prevalent, then in that location's no video of what happened. I officer afterwards described in his report that Longman was shaken upward.
"It should as well be noted that I briefly spoke to Officer Longman right after the shooting," the officer wrote, "and asked him if he was alright and he said, 'No, I'm not alright, I just took a man's life.'"
Prosecutors found the officers legally justified in shooting Cotton.
A year later, Longman was in his second shooting. This time, he was called to a habitation later a girl reported her father was choking her mother. When police arrived, they saw twoscore-year-old Richard Jackson had dragged his wife into the street and was holding a pocketknife to her neck.
The officers tried to reason with Jackson, according to police force reports, but he began counting down from 10.
As the adult female biconvex away from the knife, Longman fired two rounds. 1 struck Jackson, killing him.
Once again, Longman was found justified.
This photograph from Dec 2010 shows West Valley City law officeholder Tyler Longman shopping for a 14-year-erstwhile boys coat at JC Penney at the Valley Fair Mall equally function of a charity issue. (Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Eleven years passed before he killed Breinholt in the basement of West Valley Metropolis'southward police department.
Police Chief Colleen Jacobs said in a statement about officers who have fired their weapons in multiple encounters that each shooting is extensively analyzed by the department and scrutinized on its ain claim.
"An officer-involved shooting is traumatic for all afflicted," she said, "And, as such, any officeholder-involved shooting in our department is of dandy concern to united states of america."
Was a gun the but selection?
When Shrewsberry, founder of the California-based Institute for Criminal Justice Preparation Reform, watched the videos showing Breinholt's shooting, he questioned why Breinholt was arrested at all and not taken to a infirmary instead.
"That, to me, actually overshadows everything else," he said. "Considering, if someone [said] that he wanted to kill himself, who was intoxicated, who as well took more than the prescribed amount of narcotics, in my view, the very first firsthand thing should accept been that he be transported to someplace for care."
Instead, Shrewsberry said, the officers started a DUI instance and took Breinholt to the police station. The police proficient said he was struck by the "accented indifference" he believed the officers showed the human being and the "total lack of empathy" toward someone clearly in crisis.
Shrewsberry'south nonprofit focuses on enquiry on police force training and advocating for improvements to that preparation.
In his stance, lethal force wasn't warranted.
"This should not accept been an result," he said, "where an enormous corporeality of force, certainly weapon force, would accept been required to get a person under control."
Shrewsberry said the officers could have moved Breinholt to a holding cell when he started to disobey, or could take stunned him with a taser or pepper-sprayed him when he reached for the gun. They could have used "brute force" to overpower the intoxicated man and get him away from the officer's gun.
Longman'due south attorney, Bret Rawson, declined to annotate for this story considering the case is pending. Rawson too represents Utah Congenial Order of Constabulary members.
Ian Adams, executive director of the Utah FOP, has seen portions of the video depicting the shooting, and he sees it differently. He said the video shows two officers struggling to get command of the gun and who weren't able to overpower Breinholt — which necessitated a higher use of strength.
"They truly believe their lives were at gamble," he said. "And they are fighting the suspect to become his hand off the gun, and they all the same can't do it."
Adams said that, in grooming, officers are told there'south only one reason why someone would want to accept their gun: For "lethal ends."
"You lot must defend it," he said, "as if your life was at stake."
He added that Longman saying, "Yous're about to die, my friend" was the "appropriate legal warning" to tell Breinholt to terminate what he was doing or be shot.
"An officeholder is trying to warn someone," he said, "their actions are going to have terrible consequences."
A lawsuit
Colin King, the attorney for Breinholt'due south family members, said they intend to sue West Valley City and Longman, but have been waiting for the district attorney to decide whether to file charges confronting the sergeant. Rex chosen the shooting an "unrighteous, unjustified and excessive use of strength."
"Republic of chad Breinholt was completely restrained and controlled the moment he was shot in the side of the brow point-blank by Officer Longman," the attorney said. "That use of strength was utterly and completely unjustified. He was a young man who was handcuffed backside his dorsum, who had [several officers] in the room controlling him. If this isn't excessive force, I don't know what is."
Gill, the district attorney, said in a contempo interview that he doesn't know when his office might rule in Breinholt'southward case.
"At this time, what I can say is that our part is actively invested and engaged in the matter," he said. "Merely I can't say anything beyond that."
He said more often than not that when his prosecutors do consider these cases, they don't take into account how many shootings the officer has previously been in. Similarly, they don't consider whether someone who was shot at had a previous criminal history.
King said he doesn't call back a law officer should be taken off the force after ane shooting, simply he believes more should take been washed with Longman before he shot Breinholt.
"Once you have a pattern established, which I think this is, after 2 shootings, at least at that place should have been some retraining," he said. "At that place should have been some serious investigation. There should accept been some discipline. And he should not accept been allowed to continue to deport a gun and collaborate with the public."
Longman's supervisors have disagreed. Public records show Longman has non faced bailiwick for any of the iii fatal shootings. His disciplinary history is limited to a few warnings after he didn't complete a firearm training as required and one case in which he striking a concrete adjourn during a traffic stop.
The department'due south incident review commission cleared him in Breinholt's shooting, finding the utilize of fatal force was inside section policy and the law. The committee did brand suggestions about how to process DUI investigations — such as having a more secure room in the police department to keep a suspect while an officer is writing a warrant — simply fabricated piddling mention of Longman'due south activity.
The most critical conclusion involved "officeholder complacency."
"The commission recommends more training for officers on fight or flight signs and/or indicators like looking at an officer's gun, the chiliad yard stare, clenching his fists, tying his shoes, pulling upward his baggy pants," a report reads.
Longman was put on administrative get out after the shooting but returned to piece of work less than ii months later. Since and then, he has unholstered his gun four times and used concrete force against two suspects, according to use-of-forcefulness reports released to The Tribune.
Breinholt'southward family members, meanwhile, have been unable to find closure as they wait for Gill to decide whether Longman should face charges.
Neese wants accountability for her son'southward decease. She wishes Longman would have been disciplined or some meaningful activeness would have been taken before that August evening when he shot her son.
"Chad needed help," she said. "You lot look at some of the body camera footage prior to the shooting, and they weren't helpful to him. They contributed to his depression. And the fact that this was Officer Longman'south third killing — how is that possible, that an officer tin can remain on the forcefulness and carry a weapon?"
This story is part of a collaboration with The Salt Lake Tribune through FRONTLINE'south Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the John South. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Dissemination.
Source: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/michael-chad-breinholt-west-lake-city-police-shooting-video/
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