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Police have arrested four men suspected in two separate cases of forced prostitution, including a man who was shot by officers in the course of the investigation.
Dennzel Davis, 19, was shot Oct. 28 in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant at 200 West and 500 South by police who were trying to arrest the man suspected in a prostitution case. In charges filed Monday, police wrote that a woman agreed to perform a sex act on an undercover Salt Lake City police officer in exchange for $250 on Oct. 27 at a motel near 3300 South and 300 West.
The woman said Davis and another man, 30, forced her to prostitute herself, police wrote in charges. The men allegedly set up all the woman's appointments and forced her to hand over all of her earnings. The woman said a friend of hers also was being exploited by the 30-year-old. The friend said she also was forced to give all of her earnings to the man, who frightened her.
The next day, an undercover vice officer confronted Davis when he was in a car at the McDonald's parking lot, police have said. Witnesses said they heard the officer tell Davis, who was reversing, to stop or he would shoot. The officer fired several shots, hitting Davis once in the abdomen, police have said.
Davis admitted to driving one of the women to an appointment, police wrote in charges. The 30-year-old also admitted that he drove the women to appointments and acted as "security" during meet-ups, and that the girls paid him for his services, police wrote. Davis was charged with exploiting prostitution, a third-degree felony. The 30-year-old was charged with two second-degree felony counts of aggravated exploitation of a prostitute, third-degree felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance within a correctional facility.
In an unrelated case, two other men are suspected of kidnapping a woman in the Salt Lake Valley and forcing her to work as a prostitute. Police found the woman near 1400 East and 3000 North in Layton late Friday after she sent a text message to a Salt Lake City police vice officer.
"Through investigative means, she determined the cell phone was in Layton," said Salt Lake City police Detective Mike Hamideh. He said he did not know how the victim knew the vice detective but said it is common for vice officers to develop working relationships with people on their beats.
The woman was reported to have been kidnapped near 7300 S. State St., according to a police statement. Two men, both 24, "held the victim against her will and made her fear for her safety," according to documents filed at the Salt Lake County jail. They also took money she earned as a prostitute, police wrote. Both men were arrested Friday.
Reports do not indicate how long the woman was held by the men, Hamideh said.