Law enforcement spent hours negotiating with a Heber resident who barricaded himself in his car Friday night and refused to obey officers’ commands.
The showdown and eventual arrest came after Heber police received multiple calls about the man’s behavior.
The first call came from a home where residents told officers the man smelled of alcohol and offered them marijuana and cocaine as he tried to get into their house before speeding off. Police say they don’t know why he went to the home.
Then, around 11:30 p.m., the Vintage Restaurant Bar and Grill on 100 South and 600 West called police to report a person whom police determined to be the same man. He was allegedly found doing cocaine in the restroom. He accused staff of taking his drugs and flashed his gun.
When police arrived, the man was in his car in the bar’s parking lot and refused to come out. Heber Police Sgt. Josh Weishar said officers called the local SWAT team for backup after the man threatened to shoot officers if they approached.
“If you have a firearm, we’re going to call you out in what’s called a felony stop, meaning we’re going to stand at a distance and call him out on loudspeaker and make him come out of the vehicle to us,” he said. “He never did exit the vehicle on his own.”
Police shut down traffic on part of 100 South and 600 West for about three hours while they tried to take the man into custody. Weishar said they kept him on the phone throughout the negotiations.
Eventually, the SWAT team decided to break his car windows and fire pepper ball rounds into the car to get the barricaded man to come out.
Officers took him into custody shortly after 3 a.m.
Weishar said the operation was successful and no one was seriously injured.
“Even though it was a highly tense situation and it was possibly involving guns and people under the influence, the outcome was exactly what we wanted,” he said. “Other than some mild irritation from pepper spray, nobody was hurt. It was a good outcome, even though it took three hours to get to that point.”
Police are continuing to look for the man’s gun, which was not found during the arrest.
Officers arrested him for multiple alleged offenses, including driving under the influence, aggravated assault, possession of a deadly weapon with intent to assault, threat of violence and refusing to comply with police.
The man was booked into the Wasatch County jail on a $7,500 bail, pending official charges.
