This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
A Utah County sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a man last week after the suspect allegedly charged him with a knife has been identified as Sean Peterson.
The shooting occurred April 30 in the Lakeshore area west of Spanish Fork as Peterson was chasing Mark Daniel Bess, whom the deputy knew had a drug-related felony and misdemeanor warrants out for his arrest, according to sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon.
Cannon said Peterson had been looking for the 33-year-old Bess and spotted him in an area where he had recently lived.
During the pursuit, Bess turned and faced Peterson while holding a knife, Cannon said. He ignored orders from Peterson to drop the weapon and instead charged the deputy, who had stopped about 50 feet away.
Peterson fired two shots when the suspect was 10 to 15 feet away, Cannon said.
Bess, who was struck in the head and body, was taken by helicopter to Utah Valley Regionawl Medical Center in Provo, where he died later that day.
Peterson began work with the Utah County Sheriff's Office in October 2005 as a volunteer member of the search-and-rescue team and was hired in February 2007 as a corrections specialist working in the jail, Cannon said.
He said Peterson was promoted in February 2011 and assigned as a deputy in the patrol division, where he has worked as an animal-control officer and in his current assignment as a patrol deputy.
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