Thomas M. Rees, a 32-year-old West Jordan Police Department officer, died on February 23, 1986, during a weapons retention training exercise. An instructor acting as an assailant grabbed Officer Rees’s .38-caliber revolver and the firearm discharged, a single bullet striking him in the upper right chest. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital and died a few hours later despite emergency treatment.

The death was officially ruled a training accident. No arrests were made and there was no traditional criminal investigation. Rees was married and the father of three children and is recorded as the first officer in the department’s history to lose his life in the line of duty.

Are there readers who remember the West Jordan Police Department in the 1980s or who can share memories of Officer Rees and his family?