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SALT LAKE CITY — A man running from police is accused of trying to make his getaway by driving off in the pursuing officers' patrol car.
About 1:15 p.m. Thursday, two Salt Lake police officers riding in the same patrol car attempted to pull over a man for traffic violations near 950 W. Euclid Ave. (150 South). But just as the man's vehicle was slowing down to almost a stop, police say he got out and ran. His car — which was later determined to have been stolen earlier in the day — kept rolling and bumped into another vehicle.
The two officers got out of their car and ran after the man. But police said as they chased him, he circled back around to the original traffic stop, got in the officers' patrol car and drove off with the car's red and blue police lights still flashing. An officer's personal cell phone was in the patrol car. The suspect threw it out the window near 650 S. Main Street, breaking the phone, according to a police booking affidavit.
Police found the stolen vehicle a short time later, abandoned near 850 South and 300 East. Officers then located the man nearby and arrested him. Nothing inside the patrol car was taken but a laptop in the vehicle was damaged, according to police. Three firearms in the police car were not taken, the affidavit states.
Armando Marquis Garcia, 24, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of theft by receiving stolen property, theft, failing to stop at the command of police, interfering with an arrest, two counts of criminal mischief, causing an accident, and running a stop sign.
