A 23-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly shoplifting from a West Jordan store and then repeatedly — and intentionally — running over a store clerk who confronted him in the parking lot.
According to police, security video from inside Smokey’s Discount Cigarettes at 1597 W. 9000 South on Dec. 21 shows the suspect exit the business, pursued by the clerk. Additional security video from a nearby business shows the suspect get in a car and drive over the clerk “multiple times.”
The victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition. He is expected to survive his injuries.
Police later received a call from a man who, according to a probable cause statement, believed the suspect they were looking for was his friend. The tipster said the suspect told him he’d run over the clerk and provided “very specific” details that had not been released to the public.
Officers received a second call from a woman who also identified the same suspect; she provided security footage from a different business recorded earlier the same day showing the suspect wearing the same clothes seen in the smoke shop video and driving the same car.
On Dec. 25, the suspect was arrested by West Valley City police. He was driving a car that matched the one used to run over the smoke shop clerk four days earlier.
The suspect’s then-wife — they have since divorced — told police the car used to run over the clerk belongs to her and identified her husband as the man in the surveillance video. According to police, when the suspect was questioned, he admitted he took several items from the smoke shop and then ran over the clerk several times.
The suspect is under investigation for attempted homicide, aggravated robbery, obstruction of justice and leaving the scene of an accident. He’s being held without bail in the Salt Lake County jail pending formal charges.
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