SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah, Nov. 24, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A man who was arrested Saturday for allegedly stabbing two people in a Herriman residence is now facing multiple felony charges.
Thomas Michael Taren, 52, was booked into Salt Lake County jail and has been charged with:
- Two counts of aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury, second-degree felonies
- Two counts of aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies
- Aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony
- Interruption/interference of a communications device, a class B misdemeanor
The two adult victims, who are brother and sister, are roommates with Taren in the Herriman home where the assault occurred, according to a probable cause statement filed in Salt Lake County 3rd District Court by a Herriman police officer.
The brother told the police he saw Taren yelling at and pushing the sister to the ground at least three times, injuring her ribs. Police later learned at the hospital that the woman’s ribs were fractured.
The brother also said that Taren dragged the woman from the kitchen into his bedroom, then hit her several times in the face when they returned to the living room.
Taren demanded the brother’s phone, which the brother gave him because of Taren’s threats and violence, according to the charging document.
The brother said Taren then grabbed two knives from the kitchen and, while holding the knives, told both victims “that they were done and nobody was leaving the house.”
The brother said Taren also told the woman that he was going to kill her and then he would kill her brother.
Taren then grabbed both victims and dragged them to the woman’s bedroom, where he made them sit on the bed and stood over them with the knives, threatening several times to kill them, the document states.
While the brother sat on the bed, with Taren yelling at him, Taren allegedly struck him in the head with the butt of the knife, causing a 1-inch gash that bled profusely.
The brother then was ordered to go into the bedroom closet, where he could hear Taren physically assaulting the woman for the next 15 minutes. She was “screaming and in obvious pain.”
The brother opened the closet and saw that his sister had “severe injuries to her face, and he was able to tackle (Taren) and they escaped the house.”
The brother told police that Taren held them in the house, with threats and violence, for about two hours.
When Taren was later taken into custody, he had two knives and the brother’s cellphone.
The probable cause statement lists additional reasons for Taren to be detained, namely that the felonies were committed while on probation or parole, or while free on bail awaiting trial on a previous felony charge; severity of crime; and repeat offender of similar crimes.
According to police, Taren had been released from jail only days before this latest incident.
