May 1, 2000

Formal murder charges are expected to be filed Wednesday against 21-year old Quinn Martinez. He'll be charged with the shooting spree last week at the Chevy's Restaurant in Sandy.

In the meantime, families of his victims are arranging funerals, and police agencies are talking about some disturbing questions in the way they responded to the shootings. News Specialist Nadine Wimmer has that story.

The shooting spree only covered a couple of blocks, but this area borders on three different police jurisdictions.

If you see a crime in an area like this, and you call 911, just which police department will show up? And will the closest officers be the first ones called? Thursday night was a test of the system.

It was one of the most frightening crime calls ever -- multiple gunshots, multiple victims, an armed suspect on the loose. Hundreds of police officers responded, from all over the Salt Lake Valley. It was a recipe for chaos.

The restaurant is located in a narrow strip of land belonging to Sandy, and sandwiched by Salt Lake County and Midvale.

Officers from Sandy City, Midvale, Salt Lake County, Murray, South Salt Lake, even the Jordan School district, showed up.

As the story unfolded on live television, it wasn't clear just who was in charge.

It was a case in point on a festering issue in law enforcement circles-- whether police agencies are acting out of what's best for protecting citizens, or what's best for protecting turf.

City agencies tend to stick togther, and tend to by wary of Salt Lake County, which has overlapping jursidiction. It's happened recently with fire deparments -- cases where county crews were not called in to help a city, even though they may have been closer to the fire than the city that was called.

Did it happen Thursday night? County deputies were close by, but it isn't clear if they were called on.

Sheriff Aaron Kennard/Salt Lake County: "I KNOW THAT MY PEOPLE WERE MONITORING THE SCANNERS AND HEARD IT GO DOWN AND SO I THINK MY PEOPLE WERE PROBABLY RESPONDING SOON OR SOONER THAN OUR DISPATCH PEOPLE WERE DISPATCHING."

The cities and the county dispatch officers on different radio frequencies, and may not always know what each others' officers are up to, even at the same crime scene. Whether that's good police work or bad police work, those are the rules in Salt Lake County.

Sgt. Kevin Thacker/Sandy Police: "IF IT COMES IN AS A SANDY CALL, THEN OBVIOUSLY SANDY IS GOING TO GET IT FIRST. IF IT COMES IN AS A COUNTY CALL, THERE MAY BE A SANDY CAR A LOT CLOSER, BUT IT'S THE COUNTY'S GOING TO GET IT FIRST."

There were unconfirmed reports on Thursday night, that deputies were not called soon enough, and even reports that city officers ordered county deputies away from the scene.

Sheriff Aaron Kennard: "IF THERE'S A SITUATION GOING DOWN, WE NEED COPS AND WE NEED THEM THERE FAST, WE NEED THE CLOSEST COPS, WHY ARE WE NOT CALLING THEM? I'M HOPING THAT WE ARE AND IF WE'RE NOT, WHY ARE WE NOT? LET'S PUT POLITICAL AGENDAS ASIDE."