Road rage suspect arrested following fight with police

SALT LAKE CITY — A man with an outstanding warrant and a history of fleeing from police — who was previously convicted of attempted murder — was arrested Tuesday after fighting with officers and breaking one officer’s nose, according to police.

Daniel Lynn Meinhart, 40, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of two counts of theft by receiving stolen property, possession of a weapon by a restricted person, failing to stop for law enforcement, interfering with an arrest and assaulting an officer.

On Tuesday, Salt Lake police officers looking for Meinhart received a tip that he may be at Walmart, 2705 E. Parleys Way, after he was spotted driving a stolen car in the parking lot and exiting the vehicle, according to a police booking affidavit.

While he was in the store, police said they took his passenger into custody and verified it was the stolen vehicle they had been looking for. A loaded handgun that was reported stolen along with the car was found between the driver’s seat and center console, the affidavit states.

Officers then went into the store and located Meinhart in one of the aisles. Police devised a plan to split up and approach him from each end of the aisle before announcing their presence.

“I called out to Daniel by his name and ordered him to show me his hands. I was in a clearly marked police uniform and Daniel took off running away from me and toward the other officers. Daniel continued to run toward the officers and lowered his shoulder and charged into officers. Daniel was tackled and taken to the ground,” the affidavit states. “During the altercation, one officer suffered a broken nose.”

Police were eventually able to place Meinhart in handcuffs and take him into custody.

Meinhart was charged in October with two counts of aggravated assault and had a warrant out for his arrest when he was spotted on Tuesday. In that case, Meinhart pointed a gun at another driver in the area of 2100 S. State during a road rage incident, according to charging documents.

In 2003, Meinhart was convicted of attempted murder in 3rd District Court and sentenced to one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.

“It should be of note that Daniel has been observed by officers driving multiple different vehicles and eludes police by driving at a high rate of speed and disobeying traffic laws to include running red lights with no regard to public safety,” officers wrote in their affidavit. “Daniel has been positively identified on these instances but officers have not initiated a stop due to his driving patterns and continuing to elude officers. It should also be of note that there are recent cases where Daniel has made threats to ‘kill everybody.'”