‘Drop what you have and just come talk to us,’ police order before fatal shooting

WEST VALLEY CITY — For about three minutes, West Valley police tried to get Sebastian Enrique Cerda-Monti to come out peacefully of a small building in a hotel parking lot.

“Hey, drop what you have and just come talk to us. There’s no need to be aggressive,” the officer calmly tells Cerda-Monti.

But after giving him several commands to drop what he was holding and come out, Cerda-Monti suddenly bursts out of the shed and runs directly at the officer, waving two unknown silver objects, about 2 to 3 feet long, in each hand.

The officer who ordered Cerda-Monti to come out fired 10 to 12 shots, according to body camera video. Despite medical aid administered immediately by officers, Cerda-Monti, 40, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Tuesday, the West Valley City Police Department released body camera footage of the Oct. 25 incident. That morning, an employee of the Marriott’s TownePlace Suites hotel at 5473 W. High Market Drive called 911 to report they found a man inside a storage building in the parking lot.

“Somebody’s in there right now, and when we try to go in our storage space threatened us, like, to shoot us,” an employee tells emergency dispatchers in a recording of the 911 call released Tuesday.

Four West Valley officers responded to the scene. On Tuesday, body camera video recorded by one of those officers, the one who ended up firing shots, was released.

“Hey man, come out and talk to us,” the officer is heard calling out to the man inside the building. “S’up man, man? West Valley police, show us your hands. Hey, just come out and talk to us with your hands empty.”

As the officer backs up, he tells dispatchers on his police radio, “He has like an iron rod in his hands.” The officer then sprays pepper spray into the building. It was unknown whether the OC spray affected Cerda-Monti.

When the shed door swings open and Cerda-Monti is heard swearing at officers in response, the tension level goes up. For a couple of minutes, the officer encourages the man to come out of the small building, and gradually becomes more forceful in his orders.

“Drop what you have, come out with your hands, do it now,” the officer says. “Look, man, this isn’t getting any better. Drop what you have in your hands do it now … Dude, what are you doing? Quit peeking like that.”

In body-camera video, the officer is seen holding his gun. Another officer to his left also has a gun drawn and an officer to his right has a Taser drawn. A fourth officer is not in the camera view.

West Valley Police Chief Colleen Jacobs said the incident unfolded very quickly.

“This type of incident to an officer is very personal and affects them deeply,” she said of the shooting.

A critical incident team from West Jordan police will conduct an officer shooting investigation and turn their findings over to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, which will determine if the officer was legally justified in using deadly force.

According to court records, Cerda-Monti was convicted just a week earlier of mail theft and failing to stop for police and sentenced to time already served in jail since his arrest.