Officer involved in fatal shooting faces steroid charge

8/3/06

Posted: 6:40:07 AM- SALT LAKE CITY - A former West Valley police officer who shot an unarmed man to death last year has been indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of importing anabolic steroids.

    Steven C. Ward, 27, resigned from police force earlier this year for an undisclosed reason. A wrongful-death lawsuit against the city by the slain man's family was settled for $450,000.

    Ward was sitting in an unmarked police car on July 7, 2005, conducting surveillance for narcotics agents who were about to serve a search warrant on a nearby house when Bounmy Ousa approached his car.

    Police said Ward and his partner told the man to go away. When Ousa reached behind his back, appearing as if he were grabbing something, Ward shot the man, according to police. They said the man apparently had been reaching for a flashlight in his waistband.

    The Salt Lake District Attorney's Office found no criminal wrongdoing by Ward in the shooting.

    The family disputed that Ousa had his flashlight at the time, and also contended Ward was under the influence of steroids when he killed Ousa.

    The lawsuit claimed Ward obtained androgenic steroids from another country in 2004 and shipped them to his house in children's toys. It claimed the police department was aware that Ward used steroids for non-medical purposes.

    Ward's trash can had been searched by a private investigator hired by attorneys representing Ousa's family. A small metal pipe with brown residue, several small vials with white crystalline substances and a short straw of the type used for nasal inhalation of illegal substances were recovered, according to the lawsuit.

    Police Capt. Tom McLachlan said the shooting was not an incident of steroid rage.

    He said that both an internal investigation and the one by the district attorney's office found no signs of steroids being a factor.

    McLachlan said there was no prolonged argument leading up to the shooting so there was no built-up rage in Ward.