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Paul Nelson, KSL Newsradio After more than a dozen puppies were thrown in a dumpster, police have a person of interest but they can't arrest him yet.
Riverdale police say they have enough evidence to make Michael Howard a person of interest. "We're not after trying to convict him in the media, we're just after being able to serve the arrest warrant that we have for him," explained Lt. James Ebert.
But it's not the kind of warrant you might think of. Ebert says they don't have a search warrant to enter Howard's home. Those are issued when the public is in danger, and they don't believe that's the case right now.
"If we get a call from a friend who says, ‘I know he's in the house,' at that point we go and knock on the door, and he won't answer, we really can't enter the house," Ebert said. In other words, police can arrest Howard if they find him in a public area. But if he stays in his home, police don't have the authority to go in after him.
Ebert says police have even spoken with Howard, and just because Howard is a person of interest, that doesn't mean that he's guilty.
