SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 18, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Police have identified the suspect in a high-speed chase that began in Taylorsville and came to an abrupt, rather painful end in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday morning identified the suspect as Shawn M. Garfield, whose charges include second-degree felony aggravated assault, possession with intent to distribute and failure to respond to officer’s signal.
Unified Police Detective Ken Hansen said a UPD officer spotted the suspicious vehicle at about 7:40 p.m. Friday in the area of 4600 S. Sunstone Rd. in Taylorsville. The officer recognized the silver Lincoln as having been the subject of an earlier case and attempted to prevent the vehicle, which was parked at the time, from leaving the area.
Hansen said the driver of the Lincoln, later identified as Garfield, backed up and ran into the officer’s car twice, then pulled forward and ran into it again before taking off.
A pursuit resulted, going onto the freeway at about 5300 South heading north, and then leaving the freeway at 3300 South. The chase continued through city streets to about 340 E. 800 South, Hansen said.
An off-duty officer going west on 800 South stopped, and the Lincoln “kind of veered from the stopped UPD car and went off to the left side of the road,” Hansen said. Both the suspect and the officer got out of their vehicles, but the suspect failed to put the Lincoln in park, “so as the officer attempted to chase the suspect, he was hit by the car.”
Another officer who was involved in the chase was able to locate Garfield behind a building and the man was taken into custody.
Hansen said the injured officer was in fair condition and was taken to the hospital to be assessed. Garfield was assessed medically and was taken to Salt Lake County Jail.
The Lincoln had been the subject of an earlier investigation in which detectives were trying to locate it because they believed it was involved in a theft or in the sale of stolen property, Hansen said.
“The car has some registration problems,” he said. “We’re trying to determine if it’s stolen.”
Hansen didn’t know the exact speeds reached during the chase, but the pursuing officer was heard on the scanner reporting speeds between 50 mph in light traffic to 80 mph in moderate traffic on Interstate 15.
To witnesses, however, the vehicles appeared to be flying by.
Rachelle Gardner, who lives in the area where the pursuit terminated, said she saw the silver car all the way down on 21st Street South.
“It came up Yale, turned left on Second, then came down Third East — at least 100 mph,” Gardner said. “They came through literally 100 mph and ended up here (800 S. 350 East).”
Gardner walked over from her home to see what was going on.
“I thought there was a shootout,” she said. “I didn’t know if it was drug-related.”
She said she was glad the incident didn’t involve any shooting and that no one was seriously injured. It was bad enough that the officer got hurt, she said. And the suspect “was a mess, complaining, mumbling, slurring… just throwing a fit in the cop car.”
Gardner summed up her thoughts on the whole situation:
“Stop trying to take from somebody that works so hard for what they have. Stolen car, stolen goods out of it — there’s no reason. And don’t hurt anybody in the process.
“Everybody stay chill. These are not the Christmas lights we want to be seeing, people,” she said, pointing toward the flashing lights on the police cruiser.
