Two police officers were shot and killed in a northern Utah city, and a man was taken into custody, authorities said Monday. A third officer was wounded in the shooting, they said. No civilians were harmed.
The officers were responding to a domestic disturbance call late Sunday in a neighborhood in Tremonton. The wounded officer, a sheriff’s deputy, was released from the hospital on Monday, and a police dog that was also shot while in a car with the sheriff’s deputy was hospitalized in fair condition, police said.
In an exclusive interview with CBS news, Tremonton Mayor Lyle Holmgren said the suspect had the “intention to cause harm to as many police officers and public servants as possible.” It marked the first double homicide of police officers in Utah in over a century, Holmgren said.
Police said they received multiple 911 hang-up calls from a home in the city. A single officer from the Tremonton-Garland Police Department arrived first and was speaking to someone at the home when a man came out with a gun, police said in a news release.
Police Chief Chad Reyes in neighboring Brigham City said in a news conference that he believed the armed man lived at the house. The man opened fire on the officer, striking and killing him, police said. A second officer who responded “was immediately fired upon by the same male suspect” and was killed, police said.
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“Upon arrival, they immediately began taking fire,” Police Detective Crystal Beck of neighboring Brigham City told reporters. “They requested additional units. And then stopped answering their radio.”
After the officers were shot, bystanders persuaded the suspect to put down his weapon, police said. SWAT teams responded to clear the home and verify that there was no further threat, police said.
Beck said that once additional police arrived, “they were able to locate the subject of the shooting and take him into custody.”
The man was arrested on charges of aggravated murder, police said in a news release. His name was not immediately released. He was in custody at the Box Elder County Jail, according to the detective.
“Definitely heroes”
The officers who were killed were identified as Sgt. Lee Sorensen and Officer Eric Estrada. The name of the wounded deputy has not been released.
“These officers are definitely heroes,” Reyes said during a news conference Monday morning. He referred to domestic disturbance calls as “one of the most dangerous events” police can be dispatched on.
“We really don’t know what we’re walking into,” Reyes said.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said it was a “a terrible and tragic night.” He posted online that he joined the state in mourning the loss “of these courageous law enforcement officers.”
Ambush attacks on the rise
This attack is the latest in a growing trend of ambush attacks against police officers nationwide this year. The CBS News Crime Unit has found that at least 56 law enforcement officers have been shot in this kind of attack in 2025.
That number is on track to exceed 2024’s total of 80. There was a large spike in such attacks in 2023, when 138 officers were ambushed. Law enforcement groups and the FBI are studying the attacks and training officers on how to be more prepared for them.
“They always have to have their head on a swivel,” FBI trainer Kevin Harris told CBS News in July. “They’ve always got to have that situational awareness, and the unfortunate thing about law enforcement is they’re truly never off duty.”
Laura Geller and
Jared Ochacher
contributed to this report.
