This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Unified Police Department SWAT officers broke into a Millcreek home late Tuesday to arrest a 25-year-old man accused of beating his girlfriend and her infant.
UPD Lt. Justin Hoyal said the standoff at the home, near 3600 South and 1100 East, began shortly after a 911 domestic violence call came in at 9:44 p.m.
The 23-year-old mother told police she had earlier argued with her boyfriend about turning himself in on unspecified but outstanding warrants. He refused and became angry, and while the woman was asleep on her bed holding her five-month-old son, the suspect allegedly entered the bedroom and began punching the woman in the face.
"In the process of assaulting her, he also hit the child," Hoyal said Wednesday. "She rolled off the bed and he allegedly began to strangle her, but she managed to slip away, running to a neighbor's house. The boy was still on the bed."
When police arrived they tried but failed to contact the suspect inside the house, but he would not answer. Learning that the man had access to firearms, and given the presence of the infant and his 2-year-old boy inside the home, SWAT was called to the scene and made the decision to immediately enter.
SWAT officers quickly located and subdued the suspect, Hoyal said.
Paramedics examined, treated and released the mother and baby at the scene. The 2-year-old boy was uninjured.
The suspect was booked into Salt Lake County jail, where he was being held on $15,350 bail on suspicion of third-degree felony counts of aggravated assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child; two class A misdemeanor counts of failure to stop at the command of an officer an another of providing false information; and one class B misdemeanor count of unlawful purchase of alcohol by an interdicted person.