Police: Man kills ex-girlfriend in American Fork, dies after chase

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Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald
In this photo taken Dec. 4, 2016, officers respond to the scene outside a Cinemark in American Fork, Utah. A man died following a police chase and shooting after he shot and killed an ex-girlfriend who had a restraining order against him, authorities said. (Sammy Jo Hester/The Daily Herald via AP)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah man died following a police chase and shooting after he shot and killed an ex-girlfriend who had a restraining order against him, authorities said. It was unclear if he was killed by the officers or took his own life.

The woman made a panicked call to police Sunday reporting someone was shooting at her as she stepped away for a break from her job in American Fork, Salt Lake County sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.

“She was frantic and screaming something about shots being fired at her car,” he said. Police believe the man rammed her car and killed her with a gunshot wound to the head a few minutes later at a Wal-Mart parking lot in American Fork.

Police tracked the man using witness reports and he led officers on a chase before stopping outside a nearby movie theater and getting out, said American Fork police Lt. Gregg Ludlow.

Officers fired when he refused to drop the weapon, Ludlow said.

The suspect died at the scene. Neither his name nor the name of his victim has been released.

The woman worked in the area and appeared to be walking outside for a break shortly before her death, Ludlow said. She got into her car, though she didn’t tell any co-workers about plans to leave and it was unclear where she may have been going, he said.

The two were previously in a relationship, and the woman had been granted a protective order about two weeks before her death, Ludlow said. Police were investigating a report from of her relatives that the ex-boyfriend may have broken a car window and followed the relative on Nov. 22, two days after the order was granted.

Ludlow couldn’t immediately say whether police had responded to reports of violence involving the onetime couple before.

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