This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Utah County attorney's office is reviewing a sheriff's deputy's fatal shooting of a knife-wielding, career drug offender near Spanish Fork this weekend.

Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon confirmed that, per protocol, the deputy, identified only as a nine-year veteran of the department, had been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of shooting investigation.

That probe will likely take "a week or two," Cannon said Monday. "There does not seem to be very many questions that weren't answered, but they will be interviewing all the witnesses and checking accounts."

The deputy, whose experience has included stints as a jail and animal control officer prior to the past several years as a patrol deputy, was not hurt during the confrontation with 33-year-old Mark Daniel Bess on Saturday.

Bess, who had previously been booked into the Utah County jail 22 times on crimes ranging from drugs, assault, theft and domestic violence to probation violations and traffic-related charges, was being sought on multiple arrest warrants before Saturday's deadly showdown in the Lakeshore area west of Spanish Fork.

The deputy had gone to the neighborhood, where Bess had recently lived, on the chance he may have returned to familiar surroundings. He spotted the fugitive on foot a short distance north of his old residence, near 4500 South and 3200 West, and a foot chase ensued.

The deputy confronted Bess about 200 yards away, behind a barn, and ordered him repeatedly to surrender. Instead, Bess allegedly charged the deputy with a knife; he was shot twice from 10 to 15 feet away, once in the head and once in the torso.

Deputies and bystanders performed CPR on Bess until a helicopter arrived to fly him to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. Shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday, doctors pronounced him dead.

Utah court records show that Bess has a criminal record going back to 2003. He most recently was wanted on a $10,000 warrant for failing to appear in 3rd District Court in February in a third-degree felony heroin possession case. A Utah Transit Authority police officer saw Bess doing a drug deal near 300 S. 500 West in Salt Lake City last December, charges state. When confronted by the officer, Bess allegedly handed over three black balloons containing heroin.

Bess also was wanted on a $5,000 warrant in a case in which police allegedly caught him holding a syringe containing heroin and pulling up his sleeve while sitting on the sidewalk near 200 S. 500 West in February.

Saturday's episode is believed to have been at least the third this year in which a police officer has shot and killed someone.

Corey Lee Henderson, 31, was killed Jan. 17 by Unified Police officers in Holladay after Henderson gunned down Officer Doug Barney, 44. Henderson, a parole fugitive, shot Barney while trying to flee a traffic crash, and then died in a subsequent firefight with other UPD officers.

On Feb. 19, Justin Patrick Moses, 35, was killed by an Ogden officer responding to a domestic-violence call, who found Moses stabbing a woman.

Twitter: @remims