Utah Governor Declares State of Emergency Over Tense Demonstrations
Utah Governor Gary Herbert has declared a state of emergency late Thursday in response to tense protests in Salt Lake City.
The governor cited "civil unrest" as reason for the declaration he made, according to the order that will stay in effect until Monday at 11:59 p.m.
The governor noted that recent protests "have become violent," and the riots have caused injury and destruction on private and public properties, The Epoch Times reported.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office was one of the properties cited by the governor that was destroyed because of the protests.
With the declaration, this means that the governor and his office can now use "all available resources of the state" to deal with state's emergency.
The Utah State Capitol grounds will have to be closed to the public until at least July 14 due to the order, reported Fox 13 Salt Lake City.
The protesters flooded the streets and squared off against Salt Lake City police after the district attorney announced that the fatal May police shooting of Bernardo Palacios Carbajal was justified.
In a statement, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said the District Attorney Sim Gill's findings had "significant evidence" that the police officers did justifiable actions even it resulted to Palacios' death.
According to Mendenhall, the evidence showed that the officers acted as they were trained to given situation and that the state's law about the use of lethal force was followed.
In a report by The Hill, she also said that the decision may not feel like justice for some.
She noted that there have been big differences across people in the city and in the United States as a whole when it comes to seeing things as "morally correct," right and justified under the law.
Salt Lake City Police Department said the protesters broke down windows at the district attorney's building. With that, they declared the demonstration unlawful.
Police also said traffic in the downtown area was getting disrupted because of the protest.
The protesters were said to have used pepper spray on the officers.
At least one of the police officers was injured and taken to a hospital, the CNN reported.
Two protesters, on the other hand, were arrested, the department said.
Palacios died on May 23 after a report of someone making "threats with a weapon."
In the encounter, police fired 34 shots and Palacios had more than a dozen wounds.
Body camera footage showed police chasing the man for a few blocks before firing at him as he ran away.
More Than 200 Protesters Gathered
A protest has already took place before the decision on the police officers involved in the shooting of Palacios was rendered.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that about 200 people gathered in downtown Salt Lake City on Tuesday to protests the police violence that went on in Utah's capital city.
The protest started with about 70 people holding signs that read "Justice for Bernardo" near the district attorney's office. Most of the crowd wore masks.
After more than an hour, the crowd grew to 200 people as they marched along 500 South to Main Street.
They did the protest under the gaze of a few counter protesters, who were along the route.
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