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West Jordan • West Jordan Police Sgt. Mitch Soper stepped between Kyle Lambrose and his three children, both men with guns drawn.

Police had tried to convince a suicidal Lambrose to let his children go during a stand-off at their home on Wednesday afternoon. But after almost an hour, Soper climbed into the house through a second-story window to help the children get out, but wound up between them and their armed father.

Lambrose, 27, raised the gun to his head and fired. A split-second later, Soper shot him, too.

"It's just a tragedy all the way around," said West Jordan Police Chief Doug Diamond at a press conference Friday afternoon. With Soper and another officer on administrative leave, and an investigation underway into the shooting, Diamond shed light on the tense afternoon that left the Lambrose family devastated.

Lambrose had been despondent for months, feeling his life wasn't going as he hoped, Diamond said. At some point, his thoughts turned to suicide. He and his wife Andrea were having marital problems, as well, according to police.

"She was very scared," Diamond said. "… She didn't know what to do."

When her husband suddenly pulled their children — ages 7, 4 and 3 — out of school on Wednesday, Andrea Lambrose became very alarmed. He had never done that before, Diamond said. Afraid he would harm them, Andrea Lambrose called the police at 2:31 p.m.

Kyle Lambrose barricaded their two-story home, on the 9400 South block of Alane Hollow Road (6420 West), blocking the stairs and barricading an upstairs doors with mattresses. He also had several firearms in the home, including a handgun with multiple magazines, two rifles and a shotgun, Diamond said.

Kyle Lambrose was distrustful of the police, Diamond said. Police believe from recent media coverage, Kyle Lambrose felt that the police weren't being held accountable, Diamond said. Recently, he had said he was willing to engage the police in a gunfight, the chief added.

Though officers could intermittently talk to Kyle Lambrose through a second-floor window on the north side of the house — his family was in a second-floor room on the south side — he refused to let them go.

Meanwhile, Soper climbed a ladder to the garage roof. Soper was not only a 17-year member of the police department, he had served multiple tours as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan, Diamond said. He was joined on the roof by a 25-year veteran of the department, Sgt. Bruce Shepherd, to rescue the children.

From the roof, Soper heard Kyle Lambrose's dialogue with police stop. When he heard footsteps coming down the hallway, Soper ripped off a window screen and climbed into the house.

"Sgt. Soper saw a handgun come up through the doorway pointing toward the children," according to a police statement. That's when Soper entered a room and put himself between the children and Lambrose as the father raised a gun, and the stand-off met a violent end.

Andrea Lambrose was also in the room. Neither she nor the children were hurt.

Soper was not wearing a body camera. The department only has 16 of them.

It was the eighth fatal shooting by Utah police this year.

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