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SALT LAKE CITY — A North Salt Lake man with a history of fleeing from police was arrested again Thursday following a wild series of events.
Billy Takai, 30, was spotted by Salt Lake police allegedly driving a stolen vehicle Thursday evening. But rather than speeding away, Takai was driving slow and at times in circles and almost taunting officers, said Salt Lake police detective Michael Ruff.
Officers briefly lost sight of Takai, but then spotted him again on Redwood Road. This time, Takai fled at a high rate of speed, but police did not pursue for safety reasons.
While fleeing, Takai crashed into a vehicle on Redwood Road at North Temple, according to a police affidavit. The driver of the other vehicle suffered minor injuries.
Takai got out of his car and attempted to carjack another vehicle, the affidavit states. He forced a man out of his car, got in and started to drive. But the car owner tried to stop Takai and held onto his vehicle and Takai drove off, the affidavit states.
“Billy attempted to sideswipe a light pole in order to hit the owner off the side of the vehicle,” according to the affidavit.
When Takai crashed, several bystanders fought with him and held him until police arrived to arrest him, the affidavit states.
Takai was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated robbery, theft by receiving stolen property, failing to stop for police, interfering with an arresting officer, failing to remain at the scene of a crash and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The arrest comes just two days after Takai was charged in two other fleeing cases.
He was charged in 3rd District Court with a total of two counts of failing to respond to an officer’s order to stop in two separate cases. In one case, he fled from police on Aug. 20, according to charging documents. In the other, he again fled from police the next day, the charges state.
