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MIDVALE — A Midvale man has been charged in connection with a stabbing that happened about a year-and-a-half-ago.
Butoy Habibu, 30, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated assault resulting in serious injury, a second-degree felony.
On Oct. 15, 2021, Sandy police responded to a gas station near 9000 S. State where a man whose face was covered in blood pulled up seeking help from employees, according to charging documents. Employees told police that the man had "entered the gas station covered in blood and started coughing up blood," the charges state.
"Medical records report that (the man) suffered multiple stab wounds to his forehead, ear and lower and upper lip and that he had to be intubated and have surgery to repair the wounds," according to the charges.
As detectives attempted to retrace the man's steps to find out what had happened, they learned he had been at Habibu's apartment. The man told police that he was just leaving the apartment when "Habibu hit him in the back of the head with a knife, then Habibu stabbed (the man) several times. (The victim) stated he was able to escape and he got into his vehicle and drove off looking for a hospital but could not find one so he went to a nearby gas station in Sandy," the charges state.
Court documents do not give a possible motive for the attack.
According to Unified police, the delays in screening the case with the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office were due to a couple of factors including a record number of other violent felony crimes being investigated by detectives that year, Habibu claiming there were witnesses that never materialized, and detectives trying to interpret messages they recovered that were in different African dialects.
