Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force agent Jared Francom died early on 5 January 2012 after a shootout the previous night at a suspected home cannabis grow in Ogden, Utah; five more officers were wounded.[1] The raid began between 8 and 8:30 p.m. on 4 January, when about a dozen officers and deputies went to the house of Matthew Stewart, a 37-year-old Army veteran who worked at a local Walmart.[2]
Six strike-force members knocked on a side door identifying themselves as police, and broke it down about 8:40 p.m. when there was no response, again announcing a search warrant.[2] Police say Stewart emerged from hiding about five minutes later and opened fire with a 9 mm Beretta pistol, kept shooting after the officers retreated, fled through a bedroom window and kept firing from a backyard shed before surrendering wounded.[2]
Why the house was raided
An informant had told Ogden police the previous September that she had personally seen a hydroponic grow in Stewart’s basement at 3268 Jackson Avenue producing about 12 to 15 marijuana plants, kept in a freezer, with some sold.[2] The house stands across the street from a Mormon meeting house, inside a state-designated drug-free zone.[2]
Stewart, who worked nights, said he was asleep when police arrived, woke to glass breaking and believed he was being robbed, never hearing the officers identify themselves.[2] His most serious offence until then had been driving without insurance; after the shootout he was charged with one count of aggravated murder, eight counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of marijuana cultivation.[2][1]
