- A 31-year-old man was arrested in Murray for allegedly stabbing another man.
- Jose Joel Guzman Melendez also allegedly attempted to grab a police officer's gun.
- Police used a Taser during the arrest and restrained him at a hospital.
MURRAY — A 31-year-old man was arrested Thursday in Murray and accused of stabbing another man multiple times and later trying to grab a police officer's gun.
Jose Joel Guzman Melendez was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault resulting in serious injury, attempted disarming of a police officer and obstruction of justice.
About 7 a.m. Thursday, Murray police were called to an apartment complex near 4400 South and 150 West on a report of a fight "with guns and knives," according to a police booking affidavit. They arrived to find a man in the breezeway who had been stabbed multiple times.
Witnesses pointed to Guzman being responsible, the affidavit states. Police collected video from a doorbell camera that shows Guzman and the victim arriving at an apartment together.
"Later in the night, Jose can be seen leaving the apartment, expeditiously," with blood on his right hand and his clothing "covered in rabbit cage pellets from inside the apartment," the affidavit says. "When officers arrived, they located a pool of blood in (an) apartment, on the landing/breezeway. The apartment was in disarray from a confrontation and a rabbit pen was located, knocked over with pellets on the ground."
Officers found Guzman at a nearby TRAX station.
"While being taken into custody, Jose made statements to the effect of, 'You may as well shoot me, because I'm going to jail for the rest of my life,'" according to the arrest report.
A Taser was deployed to take Guzman into custody. He was then taken to a local hospital to be treated for a "severe" cut to his hand, according to police.
"As the suspect was being seen in the hospital for his hand, he needed to have his handcuffs removed for stitches. Immediately as the handcuffs came off, the suspect lunged for a Murray police officer's handgun," the affidavit alleges. "While the suspect was lunging at the officer's gun, the suspect said, 'Just shoot me in the head, kill me.'"
Police were able to restrain Guzman, and the gun was never taken out of the officer's holster.
Additional details about what started the initial confrontation with the stabbing victim were not immediately available.
