HEBER CITY, Utah, April 13, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A SWAT deployment and police search ended peaceably Wednesday, when officers from multiple agencies were able to resolve a potential domestic violence situation in Heber City.
Events began to unfold at 11:09 a.m. when a woman called 911 to report her estranged husband was at her home in violation of a protective order and was threatening to harm himself, according to a Heber City Police Department statement.
Attempts to contact the man at the residence were unsuccessful.
“Based on the totality of circumstances, that being a felony domestic violence protective order violation, history of the offender, and suicidal threats reported to law enforcement, Heber/Wasatch SWAT was called out,” police said.
But upon entering the residence, police found the troubled man had fled. Police were then able to contact him by phone, finding him uncooperative. But information from citizens and phone records revealed his location.
The 53-year-old was tracked down at a nearby business hiding in a vehicle that did not belong to him, according to the Heber release. He was safely taken into custody and booked into the Wasatch County Jail where he faces multiple charges.
The arrest came nearly 4 hours after the initial 911 call.
The woman luckily was not at home when the man entered her home, calling 911 from another location, but he was still in violation of the protective order, said Heber police spokesman Phil Kirk, which is a third-degree felony.
The man has prior domestic violence convictions with his wife as the victim, Kirk said, but wasn’t sure what additional charges might be pending from Wednesday’s incident. No weapons were involved, he said despite an initial report that said the man might have a weapon while in the residence.
“It was all alarming enough that we blocked traffic and cordoned off the area,” Kirk said. “He sure wasted a lot of peoples’ time and caused a commotion in the neighborhood.”
