This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A Salt Lake City fire crew found themselves under attack Wednesday from a man with a pipe near the downtown homeless shelter, police reported Thursday.

Dispatchers had received several calls Wednesday afternoon of a man in the area of Rio Grande Street, (250 South and 440 West), running around with a pipe vandalizing cars.

Salt Lake City fire personnel were there on another call when they heard the man hitting the back of one of their fire engines with a metal pipe, police reported.

The suspect then started to run at the firefighters with the pipe in hand.

The firefighters immediately called for police assistance, then took a defensive stance and attempted to surround the suspect, who then decided to drop the pipe and give up, police reported.

Fire personnel held the suspect until police arrived, who took him into custody.

It was discovered that the man had stolen a large umbrella from the patio of a local business and had used it to vandalized vehicles until he came in contact with fire personnel.

Five civilian vehicles, a police car and a fire engine were vandalized.

The 39-year-old man was booked into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of aggravated assault and criminal mischief.

In the past month, a slew of criminal activity has occurred in the Rio Grande area.

Three Salt Lake City police officers were assaulted in the area while responding to separate incidents during a three-hour period on Sept. 13, and a 54-year-old man was stabbed in the chest later that evening.

That follows an Aug. 28 report of a man who was shot and killed while driving near the intersection of 500 West and 300 South; a mob of people allegedly stripped the victim of weapons and belongings before police arrived. Eleven days before that, a machete-wielding man attacked and injured two people near the downtown homeless shelter, nearly severing a man's ear.