DAVIS COUNTY, Utah — A police shooting Wednesday morning temporarily shut down the southbound lanes of Interstate 15 in Davis County, causing massive backups as drivers embarked on their morning commute.
Layton police said a shooting on the freeway occurred, prompting the closure. The suspect is in custody and no officers were injured, police said.
The incident began at 6:30 Wednesday morning when a Layton resident called the police to report a stranger was sleeping in a car in their driveway. Police sent an officer to go investigate and found a 28-year-old man asleep with a gun nearby.
Additional officers were called in and when the man woke up and realized police were around him, he drove away.
An unmarked police car followed the man, not to initiate a pursuit, but just to keep track of where he was going, Layton police explained.
The suspect eventually realized what was going on and at that point, actively tried to flee from police, officials said.
Officers deployed spike strips to try and get the car to stop and although the attempt was successful, the man continued to flee, boarding the freeway.
Crews started slowing traffic down as the suspect continued to flee when he started firing rounds at officers, Layton police reported.
A pit maneuver was done to try and bring the suspect's vehicle to a stop and two officers got out of their cars to exchange gunfire with the man before the pursuit continued.
Eventually, a second pit maneuver was conducted and the suspect surrendered to officers.
The man was shot during the encounter with police and was taken to the hospital for treatment after being taken into custody, police said.
He suffered non-life-threatening injuries and will likely be booked into jail Thursday, police said.
The incident caused chaos on I-15 as southbound lanes between Hill Field Road and Antelope Drive in Layton had to be shut down for a few hours.
Traffic was backed up for miles, even impacting drivers headed South from Clearfield, Sunset and Roy.
The identification of the suspect and what charges he will face was not made immediately available.
