MURRAY, Utah, Sept. 9, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A woman suffered life-threatening injuries Saturday when she was dragged and run over by a vehicle driven by an intoxicated man who had been fighting with his wife, police said.
Erwin Jay Riggs, 37, was arrested Saturday after police say he vandalized his wife’s vehicle, hit her with his car and then ran over a woman who intervened.
Riggs also threatened officers during his arrest and told them he planed to return to “finish the job,” according to a Murray City police affidavit filed in 3rd District Court.
Riggs’ wife told police he “had come home intoxicated and a verbal argument began over him using prescription pills,” the affidavit says.
Riggs then left the apartment and began vandalizing his wife’s car by punching and breaking a tail light and letting air out of her tires, police said.
Riggs then took a kitchen knife and his wife’s keys “so she couldn’t leave,” and sat in his vehicle, police said.
Riggs’ wife and their 16-year-old son chased after him, leading Riggs to put the car in reverse and back out of the parking spot with the driver’s door still open, police said.
The open door hit the woman in the chest and pinned her against another vehicle, police said. She was injured “due to the sharp door being driven into her against another vehicle,” the affidavit says.
Riggs’ wife had “ripped pants with bleeding knees, and bruising across her torso where the car door pinned her,” the police statement says.
The woman told police she screamed while she was pinned against the vehicle, and another woman “heard the commotion and ran over to help, placing herself between the other vehicle and [Riggs’ wife],” the affidavit says.
The woman stuck her hand inside the door, and Riggs’ closed it, trapping her hand inside the vehicle, police said.
Riggs backed the car out of the parking spot, which knocked his wife to the ground and dragged the other woman backward, according to the affidavit.
Police say Riggs’ then put the car in drive and dragged the woman 10-15 yards before she was able to pull her hand from the door.
Witnesses told police the woman then rolled under the car and was run over by the rear driver’s side tire as Riggs fled the scene, the arrest document says.
Officers arrived and found the woman “laying in the street with severe head injuries,” the affidavit says. She was taken to an area hospital with injuries described as life-threatening that required immediate surgery, police said.
Detectives later tracked Riggs’ vehicle using a dealership-applied device and located him, police said.
“He smelled of alcohol and was belligerent with officers,” the affidavit says.
“When [Riggs] was being taken into custody, he told detectives that he was going to return to the address and ‘finish the job.’ [He] also told detectives that ‘next time this happens, you ain’t gonna find me.'”
Riggs was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County jail system for investigation of:
- Two counts of aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony
- Failure to remain at an accident involving serious injury, a third-degree felony
- Violent offense committed in the presence of a child, a class A misdemeanor
- Criminal mischief, a class A misdemeanor
- Intoxication, a class C misdemeanor
He is being held without bail.
