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CEDAR CITY — A man who police say sent threatening messages to an officer and also made threats against the officer's family was taken into custody Monday by the Iron County Metro SWAT team.
Manuel Dejesus Cabrera, 29, was booked into the Iron County Jail and charged on Tuesday in 5th District Court with three counts of retaliation, a third-degree felony; assault on a police officer, a class A misdemeanor; two counts of making a threat of violence, interfering with an arrest and electronic communication harassment, class B misdemeanors.
Starting about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Cabrera began sending messages on Facebook to a Cedar City police officer.
"In these messages the individual, Manuel DeJesus Cabrera, stated the officer was going to pay the price for what he did to his father. This officer had previously arrested Cabrera and his father in an unrelated case," according to a police booking affidavit.
Cabrera sent messages telling the officer he would be "smoked" and claimed he had been in front of the house of the officer's parents and threatened to harm his mother and sister, the affidavit states.
About 12:15 p.m. Monday, members of the Iron County Metro SWAT team surrounded a trailer Cabrera was in and ordered him to surrender. Cabrera, instead, messaged the officer again on social media, according to the affidavit.
After trying to make contact with Cabrera for 30 minutes, he finally responded to officers outside his trailer, but "still refused to exit the trailer. Cabrera shortly after, exited the trailer and was placed under arrest," police said.
According to court records, Cabrera was convicted of being a restricted person in possession of a weapon in June, and in July was given a suspended sentences of up to five years in the Utah State Prison and placed on three years of probation.
