A man accused of carjacking someone’s vehicle on Interstate 15 last month had a gun in his hand when he ran at responding officers before they shot and killed him, body camera footage released Thursday shows.
Emergency dispatchers received the first call about 38-year-old Matthew Cieslack around 5:45 p.m. on March 26, according to 911 audio also released Thursday. A motorist reported that a man with a gun was on the 600 South offramp. Panicked screams could be heard in the background.
Others soon called 911 to report that Cieslack was trying to carjack people. One of the cars he stopped managed to escape — after callers said that Cieslack fired a round — but Cieslack soon forced two other people out of a silver sedan at gunpoint and exited the highway, according to the audio.
A few minutes later, Salt Lake City police found the sedan near 200 South and 400 West and started chasing it. Soon after, SLCPD officers reported that the car had crashed near 220 S. Orange St., in an industrial area west of downtown near Salt Lake City International Airport.
SLCPD released about five minutes of body camera footage from two officers, which depicts the ensuing police shooting. The footage begins inside a police car as the officers are pursuing Cieslack.
Cieslack is obscured in most of the footage, because he’s either inside the stolen car or because police are taking cover behind their patrol vehicle during the shootout.
As officers got out of their car and yelled for Cieslack to show his hands, shots rang out, the footage shows. Police said both Cieslack and the officers opened fire.
Police didn’t release the number of shots fired, but body camera audio appears to pick up the sound of more than 40 shots fired in the 40 seconds between officers getting out of their car and Cieslack falling to the ground after the last shots were fired.
Four minutes after Cieslack went down, officers started CPR. Cieslack died.
No one else was physically injured, police said. One of the men whose car was stolen told a 911 dispatcher that he was “definitely shaken up,” according to the audio that was released.
“That was the first time having a gun pointed at my face,” he said. “I thought he was going to shoot me.”
Another caller cried and hyperventilated and she tried to talk to dispatchers, the audio indicates.
A GoFundMe page set up for Cieslack’s wife and children states that he was a military veteran who had post-traumatic stress disorder. Cieslack was a special operations combat medic for 17 years and served three tours of duty — one in Iraq and three in Afghanistan — according to the page.
“This world lost a hero,” the fundraising page reads. “This larger-than-life war veteran tragically died this week due to the effects of PTSD.”
An attempt to reach Cieslack’s wife Friday was not immediately successful.
SLCPD Chief Mike Brown in a statement described the shootout as a “dynamic, dangerous and traumatic situation for everyone” and said he was proud of how the responding officers, who have not been identified, reacted.
“Our officers performed with great courage, tactics and professionalism while under fire in a life-threatening situation,” Brown’s statement continued. “Their will to survive and dedication to protecting each other and our community under stress is extraordinary.”
The shooting remains under investigation. It marked the fourth police shooting in Utah so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
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