SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 14, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A man was taken into custody Monday night after he fled on foot from an officer who noticed his vehicle, a work truck, in a church parking lot near 37th and Market Street.
Sgt. Jason Vincent, Salt Lake City Police Department, said when the officer approached the truck, which had ladders in the back, the driver, a man in his 20s, got out and proceeded to nervously answer the officer’s questions.
The officer relayed the vehicle’s license plate number to police dispatchers and learned that the vehicle had been reported stolen.
It was right about then that the driver decided to take off running, leaving his female passenger in the truck.
Vincent told Gephardt Daily additional police had been dispatched and were already in the area when they saw the fleeing man jumping over fences as he tried to disappear into the neighborhood.
Four or five fences later, the suspect had enough and quietly surrendered to police. He will be facing charges of possession of a stolen vehicle and fleeing on foot.
Vincent said it’s still early in the investigation, and officials are looking into a gun and drug-related items that were found in the truck.
The female passenger was questioned and released, Vincent said.