TREMONTON, Utah — Residents in the Tremonton neighborhood where two police officers were shot and killed, and another injured, remained in shock on Monday as they shared the moments when they realized exactly what was happening in their small northern Utah town.
A man and a woman who spoke with FOX 13 News both spoke on how they originally believed they were hearing fireworks going off in the neighborhood near North Park Elementary School on Sunday night.
"I thought there was somebody lighting off fireworks," said Randy Kidman, who was driving home from his daughter's birthday party. "I come up the road, and I saw two cop cars and something in the road, and decided it wasn't a good situation. I went to go back out, and when I went to back out, I caught a bullet through the driver's side door and it went out my windshield.
Kidman said he immediately drove home and asked his wife, "to come outside, make sure I didn't have no holes in me.
"It's pretty freaky."
Randy Kidman describes the moments when his car was shot during Tremonton incident:
A little less than 12 hours later, neighbor Arlene Oyler spoke outside her Tremonton home and echoed a similar recollection as Kidman.
"We were at the birthday party and we got home about 8:30, and about 9 or so, I heard that... and I thought it was fireworks, and evidently it was the shooting," Oyler shared on Monday morning.
Kidman explained how the tranquility of his small town life he chose to live in was shattered by the shooting.
"That's part of the reason why I live up here is to be away from all this kind of stuff," said Kidman, who admitted that the incident on Sunday was the "closest I've ever got to actually dying."
Police officials below discuss latest on shooting that killed 2 officers:
In the moments after his car was shot, Kidman talked to a neighbor, who is also a police officer, and shared how she was crying before leaving, unable to tell him what had occurred at the time.
"She just asked me not to touch my vehicle because they're gonna need to take it," he said. "Right after my daughter's birthday party. It's pretty crazy."
