Officers Justified in Shooting Death of Tyler James McCleave
On August 27, 2024, Jeffrey S. Gray, the Utah County Attorney, released the following letter in the shooting death of Tyler James McCleave. This case involves the officer-involved critical incident (OICI) occurring on October 11, 2023, in or near the Five Mile Pass Recreation Area (“Five Mile Pass”), located about 14 miles west of Utah Lake near the Utah County-Tooele County border. On that date, 33-yearold Tyler James McCleve (“McCleve”) suffered fatal injuries from shots fired by Deputies Clint Farnsworth and Tyler Green of the Utah County Sheriff's Office. An OICI Task Force Team—commanded by Lt. Chris Chambers of the Provo Police Department—investigated the incident in accordance with Utah Code § 76-2-408 (2022) and the Utah County OICI Protocol Agreement. On December 19, 2023, the OICI case officer—Detective Cameron Nelson of the Provo Police Department—submitted the results of the investigation to me as the Utah County Attorney. After a comprehensive review of the OICI investigation, I have concluded that Deputy Clint Farnsworth and Tyler Green were legally justified in using deadly force. The shooting was the inevitable result of McCleve’s deliberate actions in drawing fire upon himself from law enforcement officers responding to a feigned medical emergency reported by McCleve himself. Accordingly, no criminal charges will be filed against the deputies. For the same reasons, I have concluded that the deputies’ use of deadly force did not violate McCleve’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures. Deputies Farnsworth and Green did not give statements to investigators, choosing instead to exercise their Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent and retain counsel. Accordingly, my findings are based on the 911 recordings, the deputies’ dashcam and bodycam videos, call detail reports, and other evidence gathered during the OICI investigation. Under Utah law, a police officer is justified in using deadly force when that officer “reasonably believes that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury to the officer or an individual other than the suspect.” Utah Code § 76-2-404(2)(c) (2022). Under those circumstances, the officer’s legally justified conduct is a complete “defense to prosecution for any [criminal] offense.” Utah Code § 76-2-401(1)(a) (2022). That is the case here. **McCleve calls 911, reporting that he had shot himself** At 11:17 A.M. on October 11, 2023, Utah Valley Dispatch received a 911 call from a man—later identified as Tyler McCleve—reporting that he had shot himself. But the call abruptly dropped before the operator could ascertain McCleve’s name and location. At 11:21 A.M., the 911 operator successfully called McCleve back, who then reported that he was at Five Mile Pass. McCleve explained that he shot himself in the right leg (thigh) and was “bleeding out,” but the call dropped again before the 911 operator could gather additional information. Law enforcement officers were then dispatched on a “gunshot wound near Five Mile Pass.” Dispatch notified responding officers that a man had shot himself in the leg and was bleeding out. At least four Utah County Sheriff’s deputies in separate vehicles responded to the callout to search for McCleve, including Lt. B.J. Eckles, Deputy Clint Farnsworth, Sgt. Joe Carle, and Deputy Tyler Green (collectively referred to as “deputies”). As the four deputies made their way to Five Mile Pass, the 911 operator called McCleve back multiple times, but each return call went directly to voicemail. At 11:33 A.M., McCleve called 911 again—though it was not immediately clear to the operator that the caller was the same person who called before. In this call, McCleve reported that he had wrecked his truck at Five Mile Pass and was walking toward the main road. Then, when asked if he was hurt, McCleve reported that he had shot himself in the leg. Now realizing that the caller was the same person who had called earlier, the operator informed McCleve that responders were on their way. The 911 operator remained on the phone with McCleve for almost three and a half minutes. During that time, McCleve described what he was wearing, explained that he had left his truck and was walking toward the main road (SR73), said that he heard sirens but could not see the vehicles, and reported that he had a gun in his pocket but could not put it down—refusing to explain why. Then, after giving his first name (he said he didn’t remember his last name or date of birth), McCleve told the operator that he saw the emergency vehicles and was walking toward them. He bid the operator goodbye and hung up at 11:36 A.M. The 911 operator relayed the additional information over the main channel, but because the responding deputies were using a talk-around (car-to-car) channel to communicate with each other, they may not have been aware of those updates. **Sheriff’s deputies respond, shooting McCleve only after he pointed a gun at them** While McCleve was still on the phone with the 911 operator, Deputies Green and Farnsworth spotted him walking down a hill to their left. At that point, Deputy Farnsworth turned off his siren. About a minute and a half later, the four deputies reached a fork in the road. Lt. Eckles proceeded right; Deputy Farnsworth proceeded left onto the dirt road that McCleve was walking down; and Deputy Green and Sgt. Carle stopped and waited at the junction. Deputy Farnsworth drove up the dirt road some two hundred yards, stopped, and exited his car to speak with McCleve, who just moments earlier had ended his call with the 911 operator. It was now 11:36:53 A.M. Deputy Farnsworth took a few steps toward McCleve and asked, “Are you okay? Are you, are you shot?” McCleve did not respond. Instead, without any apparent limp and while holding a can of White Claw hard seltzer in his left hand, McCleve continued his deliberate walk towards Deputy Farnsworth. With his right hand, McCleve then reached into his jacket pocket and began pulling something out of it. When he did, Deputy Farnsworth drew his firearm, retreated to the back of his car, and shouted, “Stop right there! Don’t! Don’t! Hey, don’t reach for it! Don’t reach for it!” Ignoring the commands, McCleve pulled out a 9 mm Smith and Wesson handgun and held it to his side. Still retreating, Deputy Farnsworth repeatedly demanded that McCleve put the gun down: Hey, put the gun down! Put it down! Put it down! Put it down!!! Deputy Farnsworth tried to hold his ground a few steps behind and to the side of his cruiser. But McCleve, still holding the gun at his side, continued walking toward Deputy Farnsworth and declared: “It’s you or me.” Deputy Farnsworth again repeatedly demanded that McCleve put down the gun: Put it down! Put it down! Put it down! As Deputy Farnsworth retreated, Deputy Green drove up and parked behind Deputy Farnsworth’s cruiser. After he did so, Deputy Farnsworth retreated several yards to the left front of Deputy Green’s cruiser. He continued shouting commands to McCleve to put the gun down, and after exiting his cruiser, Deputy Green joined in: <u>Deputy Farnsworth</u> Put the gun down! Don’t move! Don’t! Put the gun down! Put it down! Put the gun down! Put it down! <u>Deputy Green</u> Put the gun down! Put the gun down! Amid these commands, McCleve is heard on Deputy Farnsworth’s bodycam talking to the officers, most of which is indiscernible. However, McCleve did appear, at one point, to say, **“You’ll have to shoot me.”** Ignoring the deputies’ repeated commands, McCleve then raised his gun and aimed it directly at Deputy Farnsworth. Both deputies immediately fired their weapons at McCleve— Deputy Farnsworth fired six rounds and Deputy Green fired ten rounds. Six or seven rounds struck McCleve, who then fell to the ground and rolled over on his back—about a minute and a half after he hung up on the 911 operator. It was 11:37 A.M. (Footnote 1) After the last shot was fired, the deputies kicked McCleve’s handgun out of his reach, secured him in handcuffs, and assessed his injuries. Then, just two minutes after the shooting, the deputies administered CPR until emergency medical responders arrived and took over. But their efforts were to no avail. According to the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, one of the bullets severed a major artery, which would have caused McCleve to die from blood loss within a matter of seconds. **Post-shooting investigation revealing that McCleve orchestrated his shooting death** The information gathered from the OICI investigation leads to the inevitable conclusion that unbeknownst to Deputies Farnsworth and Green, McCleve tragically orchestrated his ownsuicide at their hands—a case of “suicide by cop.” **McCleve’s mental state.** McCleve had struggled emotionally for some time following a divorce, had fallen into severe bouts of alcohol abuse, and more than once had threatened suicide. Unfortunately, these troubles worsened in the 24 hours before his death. The day before, McCleve got into an argument with his ex-wife over the custody of their child; he stormed out of a group therapy session at the sober-living facility where he was residing, then got drunk; and when his therapist reached him a couple of hours later, he told her that he was contemplating suicide. The next day, the argument over custody resumed in the form of text messages; he missed another group therapy session, then got drunk again; and about an hour before the shooting, he sent his therapist a text message adamantly declaring, “I’m going to kill myself.” Then, just before calling 911, McCleve called his father, told him he was suicidal, and hung up. **Autopsy.** A medical examiner (ME) performed an autopsy on McCleve the day after the shooting. After examining the body, she found that McCleve had been shot six to seven times. Among those six to seven shots, the ME found that McCleve had been shot in both his right hip and right thigh, which shattered his femur. Both shots had entered and exited McCleve’s body. Although McCleve had reported to 911 that he had shot himself in the right thigh, the ME found it unlikely that either the hip wound or the thigh was self inflicted. The ME also found it unlikely than any other gunshot wounds was self inflicted. That conclusion is supported by McCleve’s gait as he approached Deputy Farnsworth—he was neither limping nor showing any other signs of injury. **Empty gun.** What is more, a search of the handgun that McCleve pointed at Deputy Farnsworth revealed that it was empty. No bullets were found in either the chamber or magazine. A search of McCleve’s car, which was discovered further up the hill, also uncovered no ammunition—only a holster and several open White Claw hard seltzer cans. Based on the foregoing facts, I conclude that the use of deadly force by Deputies Farnsworth and Green was justified under Utah law. Specifically, I conclude that the deputies reasonably believed the use of deadly force was “necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury” to the deputies. Utah Code § 76-2-404(2)(c). In addition, the deputies’ repeated demands that McCleve drop his gun satisfied their statutory obligation to give, “[i]f feasible, a verbal warning … prior to any use of deadly force.” Utah Code § 77-2-404(3). Indeed, the deputies showed great restraint—at their own peril—in not shooting McCleve beforehand— opting not to fire their weapons when McCleve first drew his gun, when he repeatedly ignored their commands to put the gun down, and when he continued to advance on them while saying, “It’s you or me.” What is more, the evidence gathered demonstrates that McCleve orchestrated his own suicide at the hands of the deputies. In the 24 hours before the shooting, McCleve (1) told others he was going to commit suicide; (2) elicited a police response by making a false report that he shot himself; and (3) brought an empty gun to the fight—pointing his empty gun at Deputy Farnsworth. Deputies Farnsworth and Green were unaware of these circumstances, so, when the gun was raised, they were left with no choice but to shoot McCleve in self-defense and defense of another. Finally, Deputy Farnsworth and Deputy Green’s use of deadly force did not violate McCleve’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures because, based on those same facts, the officers had “probable cause to believe that McCleve pose[d] a threat of serious physical harm” to the deputies. Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 11 (1985). Based on the foregoing findings and conclusions, the Utah County Attorney’s Office has closed this case. Respectfully, Jeffrey S. Gray Utah County Attorney (Footnote 1: McCleve’s therapist reported his suicide threat to law enforcement. However, her report—which was taken by the Tooele County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) because she thought McCleve was camping near Terra, Utah—came about an hour after the shooting.)