OREM, Utah, July 28, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — A Utah County man was arrested Monday evening after police say he threatened customers and employees at Cafe Rio in Orem.
A probable cause statement from Utah County said Daniel Medina Rivera, 34, is facing charges of:
- Felony commercial obstruction, a second-degree felony
- Damage jails, a third-degree felony
- Assault, a class B misdemeanor
- Failure to disclose identity, a class B misdemeanor
- 6 counts of threat of violence, a class B misdemeanor
- Disorderly conduct after request to stop, a class C misdemeanor
On Monday at around 7:15 p.m., the arresting officer responded to a report of a man, later identified as Daniel Rivera, trying to fight people and threatening to shoot customers and staff at Cafe Rio, at 40 W. Center St., the probable cause statement said.
“I arrived with assisting officers and observed Daniel standing in line yelling at multiple employees and customers,” the statement said. “When Daniel noticed that officers were approaching him, he turned around and said, ‘here we go,’ and raised his arms up appearing to get into a fighting stance. I then grabbed Daniel’s wrists with assisting officers and brought Daniel outside and placed him into handcuffs.”
Rivera allegedly actively resisted officers as he was brought outside and detained, pulling away repeatedly, in spite of commands that he stop, according to police.
“As we detained Daniel, he repeatedly yelled and threatened officers, telling me and two other officers that he was going to kill us and shoot us with his ‘Glock 50,'” the statement said. “Daniel later said that if he had a gun on him, he would shoot each one of us, along with the judge and prosecutors in court. Daniel also yelled that he should’ve killed the ‘racist’ employees at Cafe Rio.”
After Rivera was detained, officers repeatedly asked him to identify himself, and he refused to do so, saying that his name was, “f— you mother f—–.”
Rivera was eventually identified by his Texas driver’s license in his backpack.
“As I went to bring my patrol car closer to the Cafe Rio entrance to place Daniel inside, one of the Cafe Rio employees approached me and told me that he tried to calm down Daniel but Daniel yelled at him repeatedly, threatened to kill him, and started lunging towards him, appearing to be swing his arms at him in attempts to hit him,” the statement said. “The employee said that Daniel did not actually hit him. The employee said that he and his boss asked Daniel to leave multiple times but he refused to leave and continued to threaten employees and customers.”
Rivera was brought to a patrol car where he allegedly continued to yell and threaten officers, the statement said.
“When Daniel was placed inside my patrol car, he immediately started headbutting the cage window and kicking the door with a large amount of force more than 15 times,” the statement said. “Officers then had to forcibly pull Daniel out of the car in order to place leg restraints on Daniel’s legs to keep him from kicking the door, because Daniel refused commands to stop damaging the cage and to step out of the car. Once Daniel was back in the car, I had to pull the seat belt down tight enough to keep Daniel from headbutting the cage window. In spite of the restraints, Daniel continued to try and kick the car door.”
Rivera was transported to Utah County Jail with his bail set at $10,010.
