Police arrest man who was involved in Tuesday's barricade at downtown motel

SALT LAKE CITY — A man who evaded police in an almost 8-hour long barricade on Tuesday was arrested in West Valley City Thursday afternoon.

Gabriel Valenzuela, 50, was taken into custody around 1 p.m. when West Valley City police saw him leave a hotel room at 3440 Decker Lake Drive. The officers had been conducting a drug investigation before spotting Valenzuela.

Officers tried to stop him, but he fled the scene. West Valley police caught up to Valenzuela and arrested him on an outstanding warrant.

The situation started Tuesday about 3:30 p.m. when Salt Lake patrol officers saw a stolen motorcycle at the Main Street Motel near 1500 S. Main Street. Through surveillance footage, officers saw Valenzuela go inside a room at the motel and so they secured the area and tried to contact him.

Police believed he had barricaded himself in the room and learned he had a knife and was accompanied by a second person. A portion of Main Street was closed most of Tuesday.

The barricade situation lasted until after 10 p.m., and officers were joined by SWAT and crisis negotiators. Officers approached the room and discovered Valenzuela and the woman with him — who also has felony warrant for her arrest — had accessed the attic by cutting a hole in the motel room's ceiling.

"By doing so, the two suspects managed to take advantage of a very small window of time and left the motel property," Salt Lake City police said in a statement.

Police conducted an extensive search of the motel property late Tuesday and spent all of Wednesday following up on leads searching for Valenzuela. Police said Valenzuela and the woman he was with — whose identity is not being released — never posed an imminent threat to a person or public safety.

Related topics