By nate carlisle, Cimaron Neugebauer, CHristopher Smart, bob mims and lindsay whitehurst

| The Salt Lake Tribune

Ogden » Police are investigating why a decorated Army veteran allegedly opened fire during a routine drug-related raid Wednesday night, killing one police officer and wounding five others in a shootout described as "total chaos."

Following his death, the family of 30-year-old Ogden police Officer Jared Francom said his narcotics strike force position was his "dream job."

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Related Stories

• Police: Six officers injured in Ogden shooting
  Published January 4, 2012

At a glance

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Fallen officers:

Jared Francom is the 134th police officer killed in the line of duty in Utah.

He is the eighth Ogden officer to die in the line of duty, the last one before him being Detective Marshall White, who was fatally wounded by a burglary suspect in 1963. The Marshall White Center in Ogden is named after him.

A list of Ogden Police Department’s fallen officers:

BROWN, William A., 1899 (homicide)

SNIPES, James D., 1903 (accidental)

SMALLEY, Albert G., 1920 (accidental)

MANZEL, Charles, 1921 (homicide)

QUIGLEY, Joseph H., 1935 (homicide)

GATES, Hoyt L., 1941 (homicide)

BEAN, Clarence M., 1945 (accidental)

WHITE, Marshall N., 1963 (homicide)

FRANCOM, Jared, 2012 (official cause to be determined)

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Bank account set up for officers:

All funds raised will be going directly to the officer to whom the funds were donated. Individuals that would like to donate to any of these officers may do so by going to any Bank of Utah location and provide the name of the officer(s).

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"He was doing exactly what he wanted to do," said his father-in-law, John Frisby — himself a retired Air Force colonel.

But those things mean little to Francom’s grieving family, which includes a wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 5, Frisby said.

"He’s dead and there’s no solace in that at all," he said.

Nothing looked amiss shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday as the 12-person Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force team approached a red brick home at 3268 Jackson Ave. to serve a search warrant, said Ogden Interim Police Chief Wayne Tarwater. No one answered when they knocked on the door and identified themselves.

"There really was not a great deal that was unique, other than the outcome," said Strike Force Commander Darin Parke.

When they entered, 37-year-old Matthew David Stewart allegedly started shooting.

Six officers were hit, and Francom died early Thursday morning at Ogden Regional Medical Center. Three of the officers were critically wounded, another suffered serious injuries and yet another has been released from the hospital.

Stewart, who was said to have multiple guns, was wounded but is expected to recover.

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Death penalty possible » Little in Stewart’s background seems to point to Wednesday night’s violence. The oldest of five children, he served as an Army multichannel transmission systems operator in North Carolina and Germany for four years. He was awarded the Army Achievement Medal and a National Defense Service Medal before leaving the military in 1998, an Army spokesman said. He worked as a security guard for the IRS before getting a warehouse job on the graveyard shift at Walmart in Riverdale three years ago. A check of Utah court records shows only a traffic ticket for driving without insurance.

But his father, Michael Stewart, said his son, who has "issues," may have been growing marijuana to "self-medicate." The father said they are estranged, but maintained that Matthew Stewart was not a drug dealer and may have been surprised by police.

"I can’t believe for the life of me why he would do that," Michael Stewart said of the shootings. "Our priorities are with the officers who are still suffering right now."

Held under guard in an unspecified medical facility, Matthew Stewart could face aggravated murder as well as multiple attempted murder charges, said a tearful Weber County Attorney Dee Smith during a news conference Thursday. Under Utah law, killing a law-enforcement officer carries the potential for the death penalty.

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Investigation continues » In the aftermath of the shooting, police closed a portion of the quiet residential block that included Stewart’s one-story home as a steady stream of police, Drug Enforcement Administration agents and crime scene technicians passed in and out. More than two dozen evidence markers dotted Stewart’s lawn and crossed the street to a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wardhouse parking lot, where a collection of flowers and candles honored Francom. Bloodstains were visible on the street.