This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A man is accused of choking a 3-month-old baby and then choking a police officer who arrested him Sept. 1 in West Jordan.
A neighbor at the apartment complex told police that the man and his girlfriend were arguing over the baby's car seat and tugging it back and forth, police wrote in charges filed Tuesday. The neighbor said he told the couple to stop shaking the baby in the car seat, and the mother let go, police wrote.
The father, 21, then took the baby into the apartment, and the neighbor saw him standing in the open door with his arm around the baby's neck in a "choke hold," police wrote.
Other neighbors said the man shoved the woman into a door so hard that it burst open. A neighbor said she also saw the man "throwing the baby seat around," police wrote. When she saw the man holding the baby, the baby had a "glazed-over look on her face," police wrote.
As one officer tried to arrest the man, the man shoved the officer. When another officer intervened, the man grabbed him around the neck, constricting the officer's airways until the first officer shocked the man with a Taser, police wrote. As a third officer led the man away, the man allegedly told witnesses that he would kill them when he gets out of jail — "Just wait and see." The man then kicked the officer in the leg, causing him to fall, police wrote.
The man, who goes by the nickname "Little Maniac," was charged with child abuse and assault against a peace officer, both second-degree felonies; assault by a prisoner and retaliation against a witness, both third-degree felonies; and misdemeanor charges of assault, domestic violence in the presence of a child and interference with an arresting officer.