Salt Lake man charged with stealing car with 4-year-old inside

Salt Lake man charged with stealing car with 4-year-old inside

(Salt Lake City Police Department)


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SALT LAKE CITY — Criminal charges were filed Tuesday against a Salt Lake man who police say pulled a woman out of her minivan and carjacked her vehicle while her 4-year-old girl was still inside.

Derek Orr, 29, is charged with aggravated robbery and child kidnapping, both first-degree felonies. The felonies are the latest in what has been a violent past couple of months for Orr, according to police.

About 1:30 p.m. on May 16, a woman was on 2100 South near 645 East waiting to make a U-turn in her minivan when Orr approached her vehicle, "opened her door and demanded she get out of the car," according to charging documents.

"The man pushed (her) out of the minivan and drove away with her 4-year-old daughter," the charges state. The woman began screaming that "he had taken her baby."

A short time later, a person pulled into Publik Coffee, 975 S. West Temple, "and noticed a little girl crying and asking for 'Mommy,'" the charges state. The witness took the girl into the coffee shop where it was later determined she was the kidnapped girl.

Investigators identified Orr using surveillance video from a store he went into before the carjacking where he "demanded car keys and acted aggressively" toward several employees, according to court documents. A few days later, based on a tip, a SWAT team surrounded a Salt Lake home and took Orr into custody.

Orr told detectives that "when he realized there was a child in the car with him, he pulled over and let the child out. (Orr) could not remember where he dropped the child off or where he left the car," the charges state.

Prosecutors have asked for a high bail of $250,000.

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The charges on Tuesday come one week after he was charged in 3rd District Court with theft, a second-degree felony; failing to stop for police, a third-degree felony; reckless endangerment, a class A misdemeanor; and causing an accident involving damage, a class C misdemeanor.

Those charges were filed after Orr was found inside a stolen car, but then drove recklessly out of a parking lot when Unified police attempted to arrest him, nearly hitting pedestrians and other vehicles, according to charging documents.

Also in May, Orr was charged in Davis County with failing to stop for police and reckless endangerment when he allegedly hit a North Salt Lake police officer's car while trying to avoid arrest, and then led officers on a chase that reached speeds of 100 mph before police terminated their pursuit due to public safety.

In April, Orr was charged with retail theft, a third-degree felony, for attempting to steal about $121 worth of merchandise from Kohl's, charging documents state. Orr also currently faces another felony theft charges in a separate case.

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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