Man with numerous weapons convictions arrested again with weapons in vehicle

Salt Lake police were forced to use a Taser during a routine traffic stop on a man whom investigators later discovered had several weapons inside his vehicle.

About 9:15 p.m. Saturday, officers pulled over a vehicle near 100 South and 600 West and found the 43-year-old driver behaving strangely, said Salt Lake police detective Dennis McGowan. He was not complying with officers' commands and kept moving around as if he was trying to reach for something, he said.

Officers pulled the man out of the vehicle, and found he was holding onto a large knife still in its sheath which he apparently had been trying to remove, McGowan said. The man dropped the knife once he was outside the car and grabbed an officer, he said, The officer responded by grabbing his Taser and using it on the man.

A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed two more large knives, brass knuckles and drug paraphernalia. The man was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault on a police officer, three counts of a restricted person in possession of a concealed weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The man has an extensive criminal history, according to court records, and was in and out of prison several times from 1997 to 2000. His charges, mainly in Carbon and Salt Lake counties, include various weapons violations as well as theft and burglary. Pat Reavy