SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah, Nov. 14, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A 19-year-old man who reportedly told a Utah Highway Patrol trooper he was bipolar and not taking his medication was arrested Sunday morning after stopping his vehicle on Interstate 215 and calling dispatch when his girlfriend refused to get out.
“The reporting party called to say he was trying to kick his girlfriend out of his vehicle and she wouldn’t leave,” the UHP trooper’s report says. ” Additionally, he said he had a protective order on her.
“When I arrived on the scene I observed a vehicle parked on the left side of traffic and a male adult standing on the driver side of the vehicle talking on the phone. There was a female adult passenger seated in the front seat with a blanket wrapped around her. The male appeared agitated and was talking in a fast manner and it was difficult to understand what he was saying. The driver confirmed that there was a protective order however, the female was the protected party.”
The trooper asked the man if there were weapons in the vehicle, “and he said yes there was a machete in his back seat that belonged to him and he used it for his protection.”
The passenger told the trooper “she was OK and that she was with the driver by
consent.”
The driver continued to talk about someone chasing him and trying to kill him, the officer’s statement says. The driver also said the passenger was his girlfriend, “and that she was trying to have him killed. The driver then showed me his arm that had multiple lacerations to his arm. The driver gave different statements as to how he was cut.”
The passenger confirmed the protective order, the statement says.
“She said she got into an argument with the driver over the phone. The driver started cutting himself, the passenger said she allowed the driver to come to pick her up so she could check on him. While driving on the freeway they got into a heated fight. She said he didn’t hurt her or threaten her in any way.”
The driver had recently been released from the Salt Lake County jail, where he had been booked on a felony charge, the UHP statement says. The jail forwarded a copy of the protective order that the driver had signed on Oct. 28.
The trooper retrieved the machete with the driver’s permission, the statement says. The driver was booked into jail, without bail, for violation of a protective order, a third-degree felony, and for threat/use of a dangerous weapon in a fight, a class A misdemeanor.
