Two in custody following robbery, chase in West Valley City

WEST VALLEY CITY  – A man and his wife were taken into custody after a robbery and fleeing in a stolen vehicle.

Officers were dispatched to a robbery that had just happened at the Lucky’s grocery store. Officers were told that the suspect was leaving the scene in a Mazda Tribute with license plate V018YR.

A records check of the license plate identified the Mazda as a stolen vehicle, according to a probable cause statement. Police say they saw the Mazda near the area driving northbound on Redwood Road and it matched the suspect vehicle description.

Officers followed the Mazda while they made a plan for arrest. Police say at some point while following the Mazda, the suspect began driving away at a high speed.

The Mazda ran through a couple of red lights and because of this behavior, police began to pursue the vehicle.

A probable cause statement stated that officers had set up tire deflation spikes a short distance away and so officers pursued the vehicle towards the spikes.

The vehicle reportedly continued fleeing until 3 of 4 of the tires were deflated and the vehicle became disabled on the U-201, Eastbound from 8400 W. The driver abandoned the vehicle without putting it in park and began running northbound through the freeway shoulder at which time he was caught by a K9 service animal.

While looking through the stolen vehicle, police say they found drug paraphernalia (tin foil, pipes) in various locations and throughout the entire floorboard in both the driver and passenger seats.

Police also found heroin in the vehicle. Police also found that the suspect was driving with a suspended license. Stolen property was also recovered from the floorboard
of the vehicle belonging to Lucky’s.

Lucky’s employees told police according to a probable cause statement that the suspect attempted to strike them while they were trying to apprehend him for the theft.

The suspect later said he willingly fled from Police, he added that he “postured up” to the Lucky’s employee, he also admitted to smoking heroin and had heroin inside the vehicle. According to the probable cause statement, the suspect admitted to running away from the stolen vehicle, including having possession of the car for the last three days, believing it “could be stolen.”

The suspect also said he ran from police was because he and his wife, who was also in the vehicle, had warrants for their arrest. He also admitted he thought the reason for being pursued by Police was because of the “incident at the Lucky’s.”

No injures were reported in the pursuit or crash.