She told him she didn’t want the friendship anymore. He showed up at her place with a gun.
On Thursday, February 17, 2022, West Jordan police in Utah responded around 11 a.m. to a report of an aggravated assault: a woman held against her will by a man with a handgun. The man was Zachary Tyler Alvarenga, 25, of West Jordan, a Utah Department of Corrections officer and a specialist in the Utah National Guard, where he served as a parachute rigger.
The woman told police she had turned down a friendship he was pushing toward romance. When she tried to drive away, he flashed a gun at her. On the bodycam, she tells the officer he climbed into her truck, stood in her open door so she couldn’t close it, and threw her phone across the parking lot when she tried to take his picture. About a week earlier, officers had responded to a report that he was suicidal.
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Three Pursuits
West Jordan officers went after him, and the first pursuit was called off for safety. He then turned up at the woman’s apartment complex, where her husband spotted him. The husband told police Alvarenga pointed a gun at him. A second pursuit followed and was also stopped.
The third time, officers followed loosely with a helicopter overhead. Alvarenga drove as far south as Springville, then came back north and stopped to refuel at a South Jordan Costco just after 7 p.m. Officers laid spike strips at the exit and he ran over them. He drove about six more minutes before stopping at a red light near 11400 South and Redwood Road, then bailed on foot across the Jordan Credit Union parking lot.
K9 Maya
West Jordan released K9 Maya, a 6½-year-old Belgian Malinois. She caught him. He turned and fired one round, hitting her. Her ballistic vest was not on. Officers did not have time to put it on her before she was released.
Three officers returned fire and Alvarenga went down. Officers held cover. He was hit but still moving, and when he pulled the gun out, five officers fired. Eight officers from three agencies fired in all: four from West Jordan, two from South Jordan and two from the Unified Police Department.
Alvarenga died at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds. K9 Maya died of her injuries. No officers were reported injured.
West Jordan Police Chief Ken Wallentine said, “Maya leapt upward and stopped a bullet intended for her handler.” At her memorial on February 28, 2022, her handler was presented the Medal of Valor, the department’s highest award, along with a folded American flag.
On September 22, 2023, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill found the shootings justified and declined to file criminal charges against any of the eight officers.
The Breakdown
The questions sound weird. They matter. Were you ever in a relationship? Ever live together? Officers ask that to find out whether it qualifies as domestic violence. Different states have different elements, and there are usually enhancements behind it.
Watch the charges stack. Every time she tells more of the story, more crimes come out. Brandishing a gun. Standing in her door so she can’t leave, which in some states can qualify as kidnapping. Throwing her phone across the lot. Separating a victim from the phone she’d use to call police used to mean ripping the line out of the wall. Same thing now with a cell phone. Then he points the gun at her husband. That’s another assault with a deadly weapon.
Every red flag was there. Armed. Suicidal. Military training. Corrections training. Wanted for a felony. And a corrections officer committing assault with a deadly weapon knows his career is over. That’s what drives a lot of this behavior. He knows he’s at the end of the line.
That spike deployment was done right. The officer set up in front of the engine block of a parked car with the spikes across from him. Could the guy still try to ram him? Sure. But he put heavy equipment between himself and the suspect. Once you get a good spike, it’s a matter of time. The tires come apart, they lose stability, speeds drop, and it’s over.
Nobody needs to hear “calm down” on the radio. Having air in a pursuit is great. It lets you drive instead of working the radio. But the observer telling everybody to relax doesn’t help anyone. Same with the voice on scene yelling into the mic after the shooting. Losing it on the radio just pumps everybody else up. Control yourself first.
This is what a K9 is for. The dog is supposed to be first contact on an armed suspect. That’s exactly what she did. And anybody who has been on a call where a K9 got hurt has seen some of the hardest cops in America cry. Those dogs play ball with you in the parking lot. They are family.
Why didn’t they rush him? He’s down, he’s armed, he just shot a dog and he’s not complying. Officers aren’t paid to walk up on an armed man and get shot. He set this in motion. If he doesn’t get medical help right away, that’s on his decisions. They hold cover and he dictates what happens next. He did.
Pulling the shooters off the line is textbook. They kept him covered while they rotated the officers who fired out of there. Their night was done. They were headed to hours of interviews.
He made every decision that night. Maya paid for it.
Units Are Surrounded
The new book from Ray Dietrich. Five shootings in five months in Riverside County. The full book is coming - read how it starts, free.
