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SALT LAKE CITY — A man was arrested on Christmas Eve after police say he attempted to plow into another man with his car and ended up hitting the victim's SUV with three children inside.
"I hit him on purpose," Michael Floyd Norvell, 54, allegedly told Salt Lake police after he was taken into custody, according to a police booking affidavit.
Norvell was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of four counts of aggravated assault. But in his booking affidavit, the arresting officer requests that prosecutors consider filing a charge of attempted murder instead of assault. Norvell was also arrested for investigation of reckless driving, DUI, and three other traffic violations.
The incident happened about 3:40 p.m. Sunday near 300 South and 1000 West. Police say a man was in town visiting family and was starting to unload three children from his SUV when, "without any warning," Norvell started driving directly toward him.
"The victim stated that he did not know (Norvell) and had no prior interaction with him before and was visiting family from a different state," the affidavit states. "The victim stated as he was attempting to remove (a child) in the car seat, he observed (Norvell) inside his vehicle parked in the middle of the street, and then he accelerated rapidly heading straight towards the victim. (Norvell) slammed his vehicle into the victim's car attempting to hit the victim with his car. The victim had jumped on top (of the) car and got thrown to the ground. The victim said that he believed that he would have been killed if he hadn't jumped."
The children were not injured.
After the crash, Norvell continued on for a short distance before getting out of his car and running. Witnesses directed police to the area of 1100 W. Pierpont Ave. where Norvell was taken into custody.
"Shoot me, I don't want to live anymore, it's too hard," Norvell told the officer, according to the affidavit, before uttering, "I hit him on purpose."
Police reported it appeared Norvell had been drinking based on his slurred speech, glossy eyes and odor of alcohol on his breath.
