Richard Lee McCoy, 42, the Salt Lake City man who shot himself in the head on Saturday after a half-hour pursuit in Carbon County, attempted to sell “something” to a pedestrianВ in the parking lot of K-Mart prior to the chase.
“The pedestrian noticed the car had no license plates and thought it seemed suspicious,” said Price City Police Captain Kevin Drolc. “So they called the police dispatch and put two and two together and realized that the stolen vehicle matched an earlier description of a vehicle that was stolen out of Moab.”
It is unknown what McCoy was trying to sell to the pedestrian.
Attempts to pull McCoy over went unsuccessful until he stopped and exited his vehicle on Highway 6. The driver then shot himself in the head with a .22 calibre handgun. No shots were fired by law enforcement. The Utah Highway Patrol, Carbon County Sheriff’s Office, Price City, and the Emery County Sheriff’s Office were all involved in the chase. The Emery County Sheriff’s Office will be conducting the investigation.
McCoy had four warrants out for his arrest including felony shoplifting, failure to show up for a review hearing stemming from 2009 convictions in Third District Court, another failure to appear for a review hearing on theft convictions, and again failure to show up for court on a drug and theft conviction in 2009.
The driver was transported to University of Utah Medical Center via Life Flight were he was not expected to survive.