A Unified Police Department officer who fired a shot at a suicidal man in Holladay last month was justified in using force, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office announced on Friday.
The officer fired a shot at Ted Gardiner after Gardiner allegedly raised a firearm at the officer who entered his home on March 1.
Gardiner, 52, played an undercover role for FBI agents in a 2½-year artifact-trafficking probe in the Four Corners region before he took his own life last month.
The Unified Police Department said Gardiner's roommates called 911 about 6 p.m. Feb. 27 and reported Gardiner as suicidal. UPD officers arrived at the house, near 1700 East and 500 South, and went in to talk to Gardiner.
Gardiner ignored verbal commands from the officers and as one of the officers moved into a room, Gardiner held up a firearm at the officer, according to a news release from the D.A.'s office.
The officer stepped back and fired a single round at Gardiner. The bullet, however, did not strike Gardiner, the release states.
Officers in another room continued to shout commands at Gardiner after the officer's shot. The officers heard a second gunshot and SWAT officers went into Gardiner's room to find him dead, according to the release.
An autopsy concluded Gardiner died of a self-inflicted single gunshot wound to the head.
District Attorney Lohra Miller found that the officer who fired at Gardiner was justified in doing so after Gardiner pointed a firearm at officers, the news release states. The District Attorney's Office reviews officer-involved "critical incidents" and determines whether officers' actions are legally justified under Utah law.
One of Gardiner's sons previously told The Salt Lake Tribune that his father's role as an undercover operative had added pressure and stress to his father's life.
"He had a history of mental and substance-abuse problems," Dustin Gardiner, 23, said. "The [cases] aggravated that."
A week before Gardiner's suicide, police visited his home because he was threatening suicide, Unified Police Department Lt. Don Hutson said. Officers who responded to the first incident took Gardiner's gun and sent him to a mental-treatment center. The day Gardiner shot himself, he had found another gun, Hutson said.
Gardiner's assistance to federal agents in part led to a June 10 raid in southern Utah that netted two dozen suspects on multiple felony charges of grave robbing and stealing from American Indian ruins on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land.
Before his death, he told The Salt Lake Tribune that he contacted federal agents on his own to try to stop what he viewed as immoral trafficking.
Court documents in Utah have confirmed Gardiner -- identified as "the Source" -- was a voluntary agent.
Gardiner had been scheduled to testify at the trial of Grand Junction, Colo., resident Robert Knowlton on March 29 in Denver. Knowlton was indicted on five felony counts for allegedly selling looted Indian antiquities.
