This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Utah parolee who was shot and wounded after pointing a gun at two Salt Lake City police officers has been sentenced to federal prison on firearm convictions.
Palm Samiuela Lautaimi, 29, was shot on Jan. 31, 2016, after taking a swing at a police officer who was questioning him, and later pointing a gun at a second officer, according to a report from the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office, which last June ruled that the officers were justified in using deadly force.
Lautaimi was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury with two counts of felon in possession of a firearm, one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
One of the felon-in-possession-of-a-firearm counts is related to the police shooting. The others stem from a traffic stop in West Valley City on Jan. 16, 2016, in which Lautaimi allegedly had a loaded .22-caliber handgun and 10 "twist baggies" of methamphetamine.
Lautaimi pleaded guilty in October to possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and one count of felon in possession of a firearm.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson ordered Lautaimi to serve 51 months in prison, followed by 60 months of supervised parole. The judge recommended Lautaimi complete a 500-hour drug rehabilitation program while in prison.
And the judge ordered that while on parole Lautaimi have no association with street or prison gang members, wear no clothing or other items identified with gangs and get no tattoos associated with gangs.
Events leading to the shooting began when patrol officer Officer Deven Edmunds saw Lautaimi and a woman walking down the middle of Main Street near 1300 South. As Edmunds was investigating, Lautaimi kept putting his hands in and out of his pockets, until the officer told him he would be handcuffed.
At that point, Lautaimi "took a swing" at the officer and ran, the district attorney's report states.
As Edmunds chased Lautaimi, he saw the man point a gun at him, which Edmunds reported on his radio.
Soon after, Edmunds and Officer Jesse Stone confronted Lautaimi between a house and a garage.
Stone said he ordered Lautaimi to drop the handgun several times. Instead, Lautaimi raised it to his own head, the district attorney's report states. Both officers ordered Lautaimi to drop the gun.
When Lautaimi lowered the gun and pointed it in Stone's direction, both officers fired and Lautaimi went down, the district attorney's report states.
Two weeks earlier, on Jan. 16, 2016, Lautaimi had been arrested in West Valley City for allegedly possessing a firearm and drugs — which could have put him back in state prison almost immediately on an alleged parole violation. But no one from Adult Probation and Parole picked up Lautaimi from the Salt Lake County jail because it was the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
He was released three days later, when no charges were filed.
Lautaimi's case was one of several involving parolees that prompted Gov. Gary Herbert in February 2016 to announce a comprehensive review of Utah's probation and parole system, and which resulted in two top officials from AP&P quitting their jobs.
Utah court records show that prior to the shooting, Lautaimi had been on parole since Sept. 9, 2014, after serving time on two counts of discharging a weapon from a vehicle and one count of possessing a dangerous weapon.