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SUMMIT COUNTY -- A Unified Police Department officer was run over by a man Saturday morning in Parley's Canyon after the officer tracked the suspect down in a stolen truck.
Officer Neil Poff is now in the hospital with injuries to his leg, ankle and lower back, and the suspect is in custody.
It all started after the owner of the truck called police, saying it was just stolen from a West Jordan gas station near 6200 South and 4800 West around 6:30 Saturday morning.
In a strange twist to this story, the man Poff was chasing for stealing that truck was the same man he arrested nearly 10 years ago for stealing a car. Poff didn't know it, though, until he saw him.
Officer Poff was looking for the stolen truck at about 8 a.m. Saturday. Because the truck had an OnStar system in it, an OnStar dispatcher tracked it on I-80 going up Parley's Canyon.
Poff found the truck at the Sinclair gas station at Parley's Summit. When he walked up to it, he saw 45-year-old Marty Lee Giles of Stansbury Park in the driver's seat.
Poff approached the suspect on foot at the window of his car. That's when Giles drove off down a steep embankment, throwing the officer away from the window, dragging and eventually running over him.
"The officer was run over by the suspect in an attempt to thwart him taking him into custody," said Sheriff Dave Edmunds with the Summit County Sheriff's Office.
Summit County deputies and Utah Highway Patrol troopers caught up to Giles a short time later and arrested him at Jeremy Ranch. He was booked into jail for vehicle theft and attempted homicide.
"The investigation is very preliminary at this point, but it's clear from the evidence we have here that this was an attempted homicide of a peace office," Edmunds said.
Normally, a tow truck going by with the latest smashed car is the most action folks in Parley's Summit see.
This was a malicious act which could have easily resulted in the death of a peace officer.
–Sheriff Dave Edmunds
Saturday morning, however, a bunch of police cars, evidence markers and word about a police officer being run over were the talk of town.
"I was just heading to work and I seen the one sheriff on the ground," said local man Brent Nelson.
Poff was taken to a Wasatch Front hospital with a number of serious but non-life threatening injuries.
Unified police Sheriff Jim Winder spoke to Poff at the hospital. Even though he's going to be OK now, Poff said he thought he was going to die.
"We had a real emotional moment there because I think both of us recognized this was a circumstance where we could've had an officer killed," Winder said.
"This was a malicious act which could have easily resulted in the death of a peace officer," Edmunds said. "Although the investigation is ongoing, it is clear the suspect intentionally attempted to kill the officer."
Another aspect of this case is that Poff -- who has 18 years experience as an officer -- was out of radio contact with dispatchers when he approached Giles, and then after he was run over.
Another officer saw him, though, and was able to help.
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
