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SALT LAKE CITY — What should have been a routine police call to remove a disruptive teenager from a public park resulted in two officers being assaulted and two people arrested on Tuesday.
Just before 8:30 p.m., a 16-year-old boy was "harassing" a younger boy at Fairmont Park, 1040 E. 2225 South, according to police. Salt Lake police detective Robert Ungricht didn't know Wednesday exactly how the boy was being harassed but said it may have risen to the level of bullying.
Two officers approached the 16-year-old to ask him to leave the park. But the teen was "very confrontational and uncooperative," Ungricht said.
The next step was to take the boy into custody. The officers' plan was to remove the boy from the park and hand him over to his parents, Ungricht said.
But about 20 to 30 people who were at the nearby skate park saw what was happening and reacted by surrounding the police officers, calling them names and threatening them, he said.
That's when Joseph Christiansen, 25, assaulted the officers, according to Ungricht.
"(He) was told several times he needed to leave the park and refused. (Christiansen) pushed one of the officers, causing him to not be able to arrest the male at that time," a Salt Lake County Jail report states.
Ungricht said injuries to the officers were minor.
Ten additional officers were called as backup.
The 16-year-old was arrested and taken to juvenile detention for investigation of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. Christiansen was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of assault on a police officer, interference, failure to disperse and drug possession.
