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SALT LAKE CITY — A man who police say was pointing a gun at motorists near the Salt Lake City-County Building was safely taken into custody Wednesday by officers using less-lethal force.
About 11:35 a.m., 911 dispatchers started receiving multiple calls of a person with a gun near 400 S. State. A man was seen "walking with a gun, pointing a gun, aiming it at vehicles and people," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown.
Officers arrived to find the man on the southeast corner of the Salt Lake City-County Building and spotted what appeared to be a handgun in his waistband, according to police.
An officer deployed a less-lethal shotgun — also sometimes referred to as a "beanbag" or "sock" gun — at the man who then surrendered and was taken into custody. Mohamad Alkaraori, 44, was sent to a local hospital to be treated for minor injuries before being booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault.
The man's weapon was "determined ... to be a realistic-looking air gun," police said in a statement.
Brown praised his officers Wednesday for not only resolving the situation safely, but he also noted that from the time the first call 911 call was received, officers were on scene in three minutes.
"The response today was outstanding," the chief said.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall also gave the officers a shoutout during a press conference a short time later — a conference scheduled earlier to talk about crime trends in the city. She said officers did an "incredible job using less-lethal weapons when the individual was completely noncompliant to their requests."
According to court records, Alkaraori has a lengthy criminal history of mainly drug and assault-related offenses. In 2020, he was arrested on a similar offense of pointing a realistic-looking Airsoft gun at someone near 400 West and 400 South. He was convicted of an amended charge of attempted aggravated assault.
