On Aug. 23, 2019, Utah man Michael Chad Breinholt was taken into custody at West Valley City station after turning up drunk at his girlfriend's workplace. His arms were handcuffed behind his back. He resisted being handled by an officer, who shouted that Breinholt "got my gun!" Footage shows Breinholt reached for it, but did not remove it from the officer's holster.
Sgt. Tyler Longman approached, calmly said "You're about to die, my friend" and shot Breinholt dead.
Longman has, in the two years since, has not been charged with a crime, nor received official discipline, and is still at work.
Police refused to release footage of the killing except for an edited clip created by a police public relations team. The department fought for months to block The Salt Lake Tribune's efforts to secure its release, but it failed and the newspaper posted the footage to YouTube:
It's the third person that Sgt. Tyler Longman has killed on duty.
Longman is one of 38 Utah officers who have been in more than one shooting in the past 16 years, according to a Salt Lake Tribune database, expanded with help from FRONTLINE. He is among six West Valley City officers, both current and former, who have fired more than once. West Valley City's incident review committee determined Longman didn't violate policy, and he's back on duty after being on administrative leave, which is standard protocol after a police shooting. His actions are also defended by Utah's Fraternal Order of Police.
A shameless execution on a gleeful pretext, while playing a weird game of "Simon Says" with a drunk, all on camera, with no consequences whatsoever for the killer.
