The parents of a 20-year-old BYU student who was fatally shot in 2021 are suing the Orem Police Department, alleging police did not do enough to prevent her death after she reported being abused by her boyfriend.
The parents of Rena Nguyen are also suing three individual Orem police employees: officer D. Cazier, officer D. Steenblik and detective K. Johnson. They allege that the employees “repeatedly failed to intervene” in the situation, and that their daughter died as a result.
Rena Nguyen left northern California in fall 2018 to attend Brigham Young University as a biology major. After she arrived, she met her then-boyfriend, and the two of them began a “turbulent” romantic relationship, the wrongful death complaint filed June 30 states.
The boyfriend physically and emotionally abused Nguyen throughout their relationship, the complaint alleges. He also sexually assaulted her, according to the complaint, and threatened her life on multiple occasions.
Orem police were notified that Rena Nguyen was in “imminent danger” on three separate occasions, the complaint states, but officers “failed to act each time,” it alleges.
Multiple messages left with the Orem Police Department regarding the complaint were not returned as of Thursday afternoon.
Calls to police
Rena Nguyen first reported her boyfriend’s alleged violent behavior to police on Dec. 1, 2020, when she called 911 to say he was “wildly swinging firearms in her presence while intoxicated,” the complaint states.
During the call, she said her boyfriend was “out of control” and that she was “scared to go home with him.”
Rena Nguyen also said she was afraid of how her boyfriend would react if police got directly involved, so she told officer Cazier that she made the call to “document the incident.”
According to the complaint, officer Cazier concluded the police report by writing that “[n]o further action was taken.”
Rena Nguyen again called police on June 24, 2021, according to the complaint — this time to request assistance so she could safely retrieve personal items from the residence she shared with her boyfriend.
Officer Steenblik met Rena Nguyen at the residence in Orem. While she was getting her belongings, she told Steenblik that her boyfriend “was physically abusive to her and that he regularly used illicit drugs,” the complaint states.
In a police report, Steenblik wrote that Rena said her boyfriend “abused her often while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.”
After Rena Nguyen collected her belongings, she and Steenblik went to the Orem Police Department, where she reported that “an act of domestic violence” had happened between her and her boyfriend the day before.
She told Steenblik that her boyfriend “had grabbed [her] by her face with his hand and held her face firmly in his hand and shook her head while doing so telling her that he was going to kill her,” the complaint states.
Rena Nguyen also told Steenblik that her boyfriend had physically assaulted her multiple times over the past months, and that he had “held a gun to her face previously as well,” the complaint states.
Steenblik then asked Rena Nguyen to undergo a domestic violence risk assessment, which found that she was in the “high risk category,” the complaint states. Steenblik told Rena that she’d be put in touch with a victim advocate, but since one wasn’t available, Steenblik “advised her to contact a victim advocate if needed.”
Steenblik then forwarded the matter to detective Johnson, who called Rena Nguyen the next day, asking how she would like to proceed, the complaint states. She told the officer that she was “concerned about her living situation” and didn’t want to file a sexual assault report.
The complaint states that Orem police were obligated by Utah law and the department’s policy manual to confiscate her boyfriend’s firearms and arrest him due to Rena Nguyen’s allegations of domestic violence, but didn’t.
About three months later, on Oct. 1, 2021, Orem police received a call from a friend of Rena Nguyen at around 10 a.m., saying that Rena had sent her a text message that said she had a loaded gun to her head, according to the complaint.
In response, an officer called Rena Nguyen, who denied sending such a message. She also said she didn’t want police assistance at that time, the complaint states. The officer asked her to provide her location but she didn’t disclose it.
About a half-hour later, Orem police received a 911 call from Rena Nguyen’s boyfriend saying, “My girlfriend just shot herself in the head.”
Wrongful death allegations
At the scene — the same residence that Rena Nguyen had retrieved her belongings from months earlier — police found her wounded with a gunshot wound to the head. She was taken to a hospital where she died two days later.
Although the boyfriend said Rena Nguyen had shot herself in the head, a detective at the scene reported in a search warrant affidavit that the boyfriend also said she was right-handed. The entry wound was located on her left temple, the detective noted, adding that “such facts are inconsistent with [the boyfriend’s] account that the victim shot herself,” the affidavit reads.
The wrongful death complaint also states that a handgun found at the scene was “manipulated” after Rena Nguyen was shot, and it alleges that her boyfriend shot her.
“Regardless of the manner of death, Rena would not have been fatally shot had OPD fulfilled its statutory duty” to confiscate the boyfriend’s weapons and arrest him, the complaint states.
Rena Nguyen’s parents declined through an attorney to speak with The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday. They are suing Orem police for negligence and wrongful death.
As an alternative cause of action, Rena Nguyen’s family is also suing the boyfriend for intentional infliction of emotional distress that allegedly made Rena Nguyen consider and/or carry out her death by suicide.
Jake Taylor, an attorney representing the Nguyen family, said “had the police followed Utah law, and followed their own procedures, they would’ve made an arrest, seized his firearms, and [Rena] would be alive today.”
The boyfriend has not been charged in connection with the shooting, court records indicate. The Salt Lake Tribune generally doesn’t identify people suspected of a crime unless they have been formally charged.
As of Thursday, no defendants named in the wrongful death complaint had filed a response to the lawsuit.
Editor’s note • Those who are experiencing intimate partner violence, or know someone who is, are urged to call the Utah Domestic Violence Link Line, 1-800-897-LINK (5465), or Utah’s 24-hour Sexual Violence Help Line at 801-736-4356 (English) or 801-924-0860 (Spanish).
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