CLEARFIELD, Utah, July 27, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A 31-year-old woman has been arrested after police say she assaulted a 74-year-old woman while stealing a car with a dog inside at a Clearfield gas station.
Melissa Nicole Rush, 31, of Clearfield, was booked into jail early Thursday in connection with a carjacking Sunday afternoon at Maverik, 709 S. State St.
Clearfield police say Rush tried to open four vehicles in the parking lot before following the 74-year-old woman into the gas station about 12:45 p.m. and swiping the woman’s keys from her front pocket.
Rush then fled from the store while being chased by the woman, according to a probable cause statement filed in Farmington’s 2nd District Court.
Rush got into the driver’s seat of the woman’s vehicle and attempted to leave, according the affidavit. The woman tried to physically remove Rush from the vehicle, but Rush “put the vehicle in reverse, causing the victim to fall and hit her head on the open car door,” court documents state.
The woman then was dragged across the parking lot, suffering a broken arm, bruised face and road rash, police said. The woman’s Shih Tzu, Reo, was in the vehicle as Rush left the gas station headed east on state Route 193.
Police say Rush later crashed and abandoned the stolen vehicle but the dog was not found inside. The dog’s whereabouts remain unknown, police said.
Maverik employees told police Rush had been banned from the store in February following an unrelated incident, court documents state.
On Wednesday, police received a tip that Rush had been spotted in West Haven, but she fled into an industrial area and hid from police, court documents state.
Police later responded to Rush’s apartment, and though she did not answer the door, officers spotted her through an open window “running upstairs inside the apartment,” the affidavit states.
After police obtained a warrant, a SWAT team entered the apartment and took Rush into custody, court documents state.
Rush was arrested for investigation of:
- Robbery, a second-degree felony
- Vehicle theft, a second-degree felony
- Theft, a second-degree felony
- Aggravated assault, a third-degree felony
- Burglary of a vehicle, a class A misdemeanor
- Attempted burglary of a vehicle, a class A misdemeanor
- Criminal trespass, a class A misdemeanor
She is being held without bail in the Davis County Jail.
Rush was arrested while awaiting trial in Davis County on unrelated charges of child endangerment (four third-degree felony counts) and witness tampering (two third-degree felony counts), according to court documents.
