A kidnapping suspect who was killed in a shootout with police Friday night in downtown Ogden had allegedly held a woman he had previously dated hostage for much of the day before abandoning her minutes before his fatal confrontation with police.
Ogden Police Chief Randy Watt said 37-year-old Richard Galvan was at the woman’s home in west Weber County when she woke up Friday morning. He allegedly kept her there throughout the day, shifting between homicidal and suicidal ideas, Watt said at a Saturday news conference, before forcing the woman to drive him around sometime late Friday afternoon.
The woman, who had recently ended a relationship with Galvan, drove him to downtown Ogden, where he got out of the vehicle near 28th Street and Washington Boulevard and walked away without explanation.
Seizing the moment, the woman fled, searching for police on Washington Boulevard. When she saw an officer’s vehicle near 25th Street, she started honking and flashing her lights to flag him down.
Watt said she told the officer she’d been kidnapped by Galvan, a man she’d previously dated, that he had walked away from her nearby and was likely in the area — and that he was armed.
The officer relayed the information to the city’s Realtime Crime Center, and its staff used cameras in the area to find Galvan near 26th Street and Washington Boulevard, near the city’s annual Christmas Village holiday lights display. An officer approached him, and Galvan took a few steps south, then west. Then, Watt said, the man opened fire on police before being killed with a shot to the head.
Video from city cameras, released on the Police Department’s Facebook page, captures the seconds-long shootout.
Footage shows Galvan walking alone in front of a red building, decorated with white Christmas lights and snowflakes, before he disappears into the darkness on the right side of the frame.
An officer approaches, and Galvan reappears and starts shooting, about the same time the officer reaches for his gun and returns fire. Galvan then points his gun at a police car out of frame, Watt said, shooting several times. That officer, Watt said, gets out of his car and shoots back.
Galvan then shifts to fire at the first officer, Watt said, and is shot.
Video shows him falling to the ground as a cap flies off his head.
“We’re grateful our officers are unharmed, and we’re proud of the courage and dedication they showed in ending this life-threatening confrontation,” Watt said.
Galvan was a convicted felon who’d spent eight years in the Colorado state prison for aggravated kidnapping and threatening police with a firearm, Watt said. At the time of his death, he was wanted in El Paso and Denver on separate allegations of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Watt said tattoos identified Galvan as a gang member.
He met the woman he allegedly kidnapped on Friday online and moved to Utah in November 2017 because of his relationship with her, Watt said. Before showing up at the woman’s house Friday, the woman told police Galvan had been threatening her.
The Weber County Critical Incident Investigative Team is reviewing the shooting. The two officers who fired will be on paid administrative leave throughout the investigation. Officers were wearing body cameras during the confrontation, but footage from those hasn’t been released.
Galvan’s death marks the 27th police shooting in Utah this year and the 17th fatal.
Ogden police last fatally shot someone on Nov. 9, when officers killed 33-year-old Christopher William Parrish after he allegedly charged them with a “softball-sized” rock.
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