A man was arrested in Liberty Park for allegedly assaulting a community member and pointing a BB gun at others, as reported by the Salt Lake City Police Department on Thursday.
At around 2:13 p.m. the day before the suspect, 58-year-old Rafael Manzanilla Perez, supposedly approached several people, randomly striking a man before brandishing what appeared to be a real firearm at a total of five individuals, those at the park responded by tackling Manzanilla Perez to the ground, detaining him until police took over as the crowd dispersed, including Perez himself, according to
SLCPD
.
Upon arrival, law enforcement officials confirmed that the weapon in question was indeed a BB gun though its resemblance to an actual firearm was close, in addition to this, they also discovered a knife supposedly in Perez’s possession at the time of the incident.
These events, occurring amid a backdrop of increased patrol operations by the Liberty Patrol Division’s Bike Squad to combat burgeoning issues ranging from drug trafficking to lewd behavior within the park, mark an upsurge in arrests within the area, with 185 people detained in the current year, up from the previous years which is suggestive of an intensified enforcement strategy to maintain and protect the community’s quality of life, this particular arrest made poignant by the direct intervention of the park’s denizens who decisive, in a moment of fear, managed to subdue a potential threat.
Manzanilla Perez is now being held in the Salt Lake County Jail with no bail on charges of five counts of aggravated assault and one count of providing false information to a police officer, it is important to note, as mentioned by the SLCPD, that these charges are but allegations and that Manzanilla Perez is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by the court of law.
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