A Salt Lake City man was arrested after he reportedly used a hatchet Saturday to try to force his way into his estranged wife’s apartment.
When she opened the door to see what was happening, he used his 400-pound, battery-operated wheelchair “as a bulldozer” to force his way inside, according to a probable cause statement.
The document states the 56-year-old suspect was swinging the hatchet and saying “I’ll kill you” as he forced his way into the woman’s apartment, near 200 East and 2000 South. She repeatedly told him to leave and that he was not welcome.
A second person inside the apartment was injured while trying to disarm the suspect, the document states. Drywall inside the residence was damaged. Eventually, three people inside the apartment were able to disarm the suspect and, using the wheelchair’s joystick, reverse the wheelchair out of the residence.
The suspect, who lives in the same apartment complex as his estranged wife, told police he went to her apartment to collect a debt and brought the hatchet because it was a “family heirloom that belonged to her and he wanted to show it to her.” The suspect had no answer for the chop marks on the door or why he was in his wife’s apartment. He told police multiple times that he “messed up” and what happened was “all his fault.”
The suspect was booked into the Salt Lake County jail for investigation of aggravated assault and aggravated burglary. He’s being held without bail.
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