What Happened to Chase Allan in Farmington, Utah?

Chase Allan was a 25-year-old man shot and killed by five Farmington, Utah police officers during a traffic stop on March 1, 2023, after he refused to cooperate and, according to investigators, reached for a loaded handgun he was carrying in a hip holster. The Davis County Attorney’s Office ruled the shooting justified in July 2023 and declined to file criminal charges against any of the officers.¹

Why Police Pulled Him Over

A Farmington officer stopped Allan’s blue BMW in a U.S. Post Office parking lot that afternoon because the car was unregistered and displayed a non-standard license plate instead of a state-issued tag. The plate had red and white vertical stripes and read “Utah, American State Citizen” and “Notice, Private Automobile Not For Hire,” markings associated with the sovereign citizen movement.²³

At the window, Allan refused to produce a driver’s license or registration. “I don’t need registration and I don’t answer questions,” he told the officer, according to body camera footage later released by the department.³ He challenged the officer’s jurisdiction and described traveling as a “federally protected activity.”⁴ He eventually handed over a U.S. passport, but when the officer addressed him by his name, he answered, “That is not me.”⁵

What the Body Cameras Show

The officer called for backup, and four more officers arrived. Allan was ordered to step out. He refused: “No, I’m not required to. If you try to force me, then we’re going to have issues.”⁵ Officers warned him he would be removed by force.¹

As an officer opened the driver’s door, Allan shifted his cell phone from his right hand to his left, freeing the hand nearest his right hip. He was wearing a holster under his jacket. An officer leaned in to grab him, saw the weapon, and shouted “Gun!” repeatedly. All five officers then opened fire into the vehicle, killing Allan.⁵ A loaded handgun was later recovered on the driver’s side floorboard, out of the holster, which was empty.¹

Farmington Police Chief Eric Johnsen acknowledged that the footage is unclear in the seconds just before the shots because the open car door and the officer leaning in blocked the cameras’ view of Allan’s hip. Officers have not claimed that Allan fired his weapon.⁶

The Ruling: Shooting Justified, No Charges

The five officers were placed on administrative leave while the Davis County Critical Incident Protocol Team investigated.⁴ Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings laid out his conclusions in a July 28, 2023 letter to Chief Johnsen, made public that September.⁷

Rawlings found the use of deadly force justified under Utah Code Title 76, Chapter 2, Section 404.¹ He wrote that Allan “attempted to withdraw a loaded firearm on the assembled officers, actually succeeding in getting it out of the holster he was carrying it in,” and that the officers had a “reasonable, articulable and objectively verifiable belief that use of deadly force was necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury to themselves or others.” He concluded there was “no reasonable probability of conviction.”⁷

Rawlings also noted that the law does not require officers to wait for a weapon to be fired before using deadly force in self-defense, and that whatever grievances Allan held about traffic laws, “the proper forum for that is the judiciary, not with a gun in a parking lot.”⁸

The report named the five officers as Sgt. Taylor Jacobson and Officers Eric Gonnuscio, Justin Boucher, Kyle Carey, and Harrison Chen. Officer Boucher initiated the stop and gave the initial commands.⁸

The Sovereign Citizen Context

Chief Johnsen said it was “extremely clear” Allan was part of the sovereign citizen movement, an anti-government ideology whose adherents reject federal, state, and local legal authority over them.¹⁴⁹

Allan’s mother, Diane Killian Allan, shared the ideology, identifying as an “American State National” and filing a 92-page court document purporting to revoke her U.S. citizenship as a “legal fiction.”¹⁰ In April 2022, about eleven months before her son’s death, she was stopped by Farmington police for expired registration, refused to give her name, offered a passport in place of a license, and was cited.¹¹ That September she sued the Farmington Police Department, claiming an “inherent right” to travel free of police interference.¹²

Chase Allan was named as a witness in that suit and sat in the courtroom during her trial. After the April 2022 stop, he and his mother went to the Farmington police station to deliver what they called a “rescissioned citation.” Chief Johnsen warned Diane Allan that her car would be impounded if she did not register it. When Chase called the warning a “threat,” the chief answered, “No, it’s a promise.”¹²

Family and Public Response

Allan’s family released a statement on March 2, 2023, calling the shooting a “brutal murder.”² Three days later, family, friends, and community members held a vigil and marched from the Farmington Post Office to the police department, demanding immediate release of all body camera footage. Friends said Allan would not have pointed a gun at officers.¹³

Farmington police released edited body camera footage on March 8, 2023. The department said the video showed Allan reaching for his firearm, but some observers noted that in the critical seconds the video is ambiguous, and that it is not possible to tell from the footage alone whether Allan was reaching for his holster or trying to unbuckle his seatbelt.⁶

1
Standard-Examiner. Farmington Officers’ Use of Deadly Force in Chase Allan Case Deemed Justified
2
Salt Lake Tribune. Farmington Police Shooting of 25-Year-Old
3
Salt Lake Tribune. Farmington Police Release Bodycam Footage
4
New York Post. Inside Sovereign Citizen Movement That Shuns Police Stops
5
ABC4. Farmington Police Release Bodycam Footage of Shooting Death of Chase Allan
6
Town Lift. Video Shows Utah Traffic Stop Ending in Barrage of Gunfire
7
Salt Lake Tribune. Farmington Police Shooting
8
ABC4. Farmington Officers Cleared by Davis Co. Attorney in Fatal Shooting of Chase Allen
9
Police Magazine. UT Officers Justified in Fatally Shooting Suspected Sovereign Citizen During Traffic Stop
10
KUTV. Mother of Man Killed by Farmington Police Self-Proclaimed as American State National
11
ABC4. Allan’s Mother Had Similar Interaction With Farmington Police 11 Months Prior
12
The Independent. Chase Allan Diane Farmington Police Shooting
13
KUTV. Vigil, Protest Held Following Death of Man Killed by Farmington Officers