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Taylorsville • A man shot and killed Thursday by a Unified Police Department officer was identified as Jose Luis Rodriquez-Castro, 32.
Rodriquez-Castro was shot as he was cutting his girlfriend with a knife inside a car parked outside Department of Workforce Services offices in Taylorsville. He died at the scene.
"We could actually hear him over the radio telling the guy, 'Drop the knife! Drop the knife!' before shooting," said UPD Lt. Justin Hoyal on Thursday. "This is a very heroic act on the part of this officer. It is highly probable that he saved her life."
The woman had contacted her family during the incident, and family members called 911 at 8:50 a.m. When the UPD officer arrived, the man was holding a knife on the woman; both were in the front of the vehicle, the man in the passenger's seat and the woman behind the wheel.
The couple had come to DWFS to get services, but got into an argument that was unrelated to that topic, Hoyal said. She and Rodriguez-Castro had children together, he added.
The woman suffered what police described as numerous defensive wounds to her hands and also had a cut on her temple. She was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder said it appeared "the officer used justifiable force [when he] shot the man. … It's clear this was a dangerous, dynamic situation."
A check of Utah court records found no prior criminal history in the state for Rodriquez-Castro.