SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — As of last month, it had been a year since South Jordan Police shot and killed 31-year-old Marcelo Gutierrez during an encounter. Throughout the past year, his family told us, they couldn't get clear answers about what happened.
Now, the Gutierrez family has some.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill went over the shooting’s body cam footage during a presentation on Thursday. Gill said that after conducting an Officer Involved Critical Incident review, they’ve declined to file criminal charges for the shooting.
South Jordan family left with questions one year after brother shot, killed by police:
“This is horrible for our family, this is horrible for our community. We’re grieving, we’re in pain,” Bryan Gutierrez, his older brother said.
On the morning of June 15, South Jordan police officers responded to a report of a suspicious person looking into vehicle windows at the Glenmoor Baseball Park.
Officers found Guiterrez in a baseball dugout, where a children’s baseball team was beginning practice. Investigators said that after speaking with him, Gutierrez told them he lost his car keys. Investigators said then Gutierrez stood up holding a knife — a fixed blade Gerber knife with a 5-inch blade.
“Our beloved brother was not a violent man, no history of violence, no drugs, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he struggled with it,” Gutierrez’s older brother said.
Investigators said officers immediately gave commands to put the knife down as they drew their handguns. They said Gutierrez didn’t comply and began walking towards the officers, exiting the dugout with the knife still in his hand.
“Mental health is an important part of it, and we can never prepare ourselves enough and we have to do it in a very intentional, deliberate way,” Gill said during the presentation.
Investigators said the officers used their tasers on him, but they had no effect. They said Gutierrez stabbed a police car’s tire with the knife. After officers tried tasing Gutierrez again, investigators said he headed towards the officers and both officers shot at Gutierrez.
“He’s constantly moving forward, and the officers are constantly moving backwards,” Gill said referencing the body cam footage.
Investigators said that when police fired, Gutierrez was about 17-25 feet away from the officers when they fired 14 rounds.
“I don’t like what happened here, this is a tragic loss,” Gill said. “I have somebody who’s clearly having a mental health issue but at the same time, I’m also cognizant of the fact of the multiple attempts at less lethal that those officers deployed.”
Near Glenmoor baseball field, the Gutierrez family prayed and embraced, gathered near a large rock where his photo and flowers rested gently against the stone.
“If this can happen to our family, it can happen to yours,” his older brother said.
The Gutierrez family has also released the following statement:
The family of Marcelo Gutierrez is heartbroken and outraged by District Attorney Sim Gill’s decision not to file charges against the South Jordan police officers who shot and killed Marcelo in June 2024.
Marcelo was a beloved brother, a 500-pound man diagnosed with schizophrenia. He had no history of violence, no drugs in his system, and posed no immediate threat. Officers stood 17 to 25 feet away when they fired 18 bullets into him. Marcelo was too far away, too large, and too physically immobile to justify such lethal force.
“Our brother was not a violent man,” said the family. “What happened to Marcelo is horrible. It’s unimaginable. This is a living nightmare. If this can happen to our family, it can happen to yours.”
The family demands accountability and a deeper look at how mental health and use-of-force are handled by law enforcement in Utah.
