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SALT LAKE CITY — Criminal charges were filed Friday against a woman accused of pointing a shoe at a police officer like a gun and then ramming another officer's patrol car.
Krystal Mary Bujan, 31, of Salt Lake City, was charged Friday in 3rd District Court with two counts of assault against a police officer, a second-degree felony; failing to stop at an officer's command, a third-degree felony; assault and drug possession, both class B misdemeanors.
On May 31, police say Bujan went up to a parked car in Kearns and kicked the door. When a man got out of the car to ask why she did that, Bujan punched the man in the throat, according to charging documents.
A Unified police officer was asked to respond to the area to conduct a welfare check on Bujan. When he found her, she was holding an object in her hands that she raised to chest level, pointed it at the officer and started walking toward him, the charges state.
Fearing it was a gun, the officer took cover behind his patrol car and drew his gun out of his holster, according to the charges. He "pointed his weapon at (Bujan), but was now able to see the object she was holding was a black shoe."
Bujan then got into her van, "pushed the accelerator and turned the van directly at (the officer)," the charges say.
The officer got into his patrol car and began driving to avoid being hit as Bujan briefly chased him. She then diverted her attention to a second officer that arrived at the scene and drove directly toward him, according to the charges.
When the second officer pulled up next to Bujan, she twice purposely hit his patrol car with her van, the charges state. The second collision disabled the van and caused her air bags to deploy.
Bujan was taken to a local hospital for treatment before being booked into the Salt Lake County Jail.
A gun was recovered by police at the scene where Bujan allegedly kicked the car door. The officer who first confronted her was praised for keeping his cool and not having the incident turn into an officer-involved shooting.
