A Logan man arrested and accused of trying to grab a woman and throw her into the trunk of his car told police he thought the victim was his wife.
According to Logan police, shortly before 8 a.m. on Tuesday, the victim was on a sidewalk, walking east on 300 South at about 200 West. A man got out of a car parked nearby, opened the trunk and waited while the woman walked past him.
The suspect then approached the victim from behind and began “pulling her violently” toward the trunk of his car, according to a probable cause statement. Witnesses said the victim fought back and fell to the ground.
The suspect then grabbed her purse and began pulling on it, but the victim did not let go. The suspect punched the victim in the face, got in his car and drove away “at a high rate of speed,” police said.
According to police, he was driving 50-60 mph on residential streets and ran multiple stop signs.
Surveillance footage from Logan High School captured the assault, according to a probable cause statement. Two students pursued the car in their vehicle, but were unable to keep up with it.
At about 8:30 a.m., Brigham City police stopped a car that was being driven “extremely recklessly” and arrested the driver. Brigham City police then contacted Logan police, because they recognized the car as the one reportedly involved in the assault earlier that morning.
The suspect initially told police he was “driving fast because people were chasing him,” according to the probable cause statement. He later told investigators that he had been drinking and got into an argument with his wife.
After first telling officers he didn’t remember what happened, the man then said that he saw the victim and thought she was his wife, so he stopped near Logan High, intending to “grab her and put her in the car to go home.”
The suspect told police that when he realized the victim was not his wife, he let her go and ran away. He said he did not remember punching her or pulling on her purse.
When the suspect’s car was searched, police found a “flip-flop style sandal” under the driver’s seat that “appears to be an exact match” to a flip-flop found at the scene of the assault.
The suspect was booked into the Cache County jail for investigation of aggravated kidnapping, robbery, assault and several traffic charges. His bail was set at $2,840.
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name suspects until they have been formally charged.
