This week in Utah news:
The Salt Lake County district attorney announced that two police officers were legally justified when they fired more than 20 shots at Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal and killed him in May. The district attorney said the actions of the officer were “reasonable” and met the legal parameters to use deadly force. Utah law states that a police officer is justified in using deadly force if they believe not using it could result in themselves or someone else being hurt or killed. The attorneys for the Palacios-Carbajal family vowed to continue pursuing justice.
Gov. Gary Herbert announced his decision to expand his limited mask mandate to include students, faculty, staff and visitors at K-12 schools. But he stopped short of a statewide mandate for all Utahns in public, instead challenging residents to reduce the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases to below 500 by Aug. 1 — when school opens in many parts of the state. That average now stands at 585 cases.
Two Democrat legislators sent a letter recently to Gov. Gary Herbert urging him to suspend state law temporarily and “allow customers to purchase alcoholic beverages that are available at grocery stores, through curbside pickup and home delivery.” While store employees can deliver groceries to a car, doing so with beer, under current statute, is forbidden. Shoppers who want that item must go inside the store to buy it.
At 9 a.m. on Friday, Salt Lake Tribune reporters Jessica Miller and Kathy Stephenson, and news columnist Robert Gehrke join KCPW’s Roger McDonough to talk about the week’s top stories. Every Friday at 9 a.m., stream “Behind the Headlines” at kcpw.org, or tune in to KCPW 88.3 FM or Utah Public Radio for the broadcast. Join the live conversation by calling (801) 355-TALK.