Man armed with a machete arrested near a West Valley City elementary school
Mar 6, 2023, 2:23 PM | Updated: Mar 7, 2023, 11:07 am
A West Valley police car. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — Police arrested a man for allegedly walking down the street with a machete while on meth Monday morning.
Gabriel Daniel Martinez, 26, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for misdemeanor charges of unlawful possession of a dangerous weapon, use or possession of drug paraphernalia, and carrying a dangerous weapon under the influence of drugs, according to the affidavit.
West Valley City police officers responded to a call of a man walking down the street with a machete in his hand in the area of 4400 West 3100 South at approximately 7:30 a.m.
According to the affidavit, officers contacted the man, later identified as Martinez, who admitted to them that he was using meth and “believed someone was after him.”
“A search yielded a glass meth pipe with a drug residue inside, which (Martinez) admitted to using earlier in the day,” states the affidavit. “The machete was also collected as evidence.”
Officers checked Martinez’s criminal history and found he was convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence case in 2015.
According to the affidavit, Martinez was within 100 feet of the Monroe Elementary School during this incident.
