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Police seek suspects after crash in Salt Lake City becomes brazen armed robbery

Posted at 5:59 PM, May 17, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-18 10:05:58-04

SALT LAKE CITY -- A 39-year-old woman is still shaken up after she was robbed at knife-point early Wednesday morning.

Salt Lake City Police Detective Robert Ungricht says it’s a rare, bold attack.

“That’s what’s so crazy about this: It’s such a brazen act just to remove a purse,” Ungricht said.

Police say the victim was in her car, driving northbound on Riverside Drive around 1 a.m., when she noticed a black truck in the middle of the road starting to make a U-turn.

“It actually came around in a complete circle, hit her in the driver side, front-quarter panel of her vehicle,” Ungricht said.

Right after the truck hit her, two suspects got out and ran up to her, shattering the driver’s side window. While the victim was sitting at the wheel, one of the suspects held a knife to her throat while the other one went around the car and grabbed her purse from the passenger seat. Then the suspects drove off.

“One thing to note is the vehicle was being driven by a third party," Ungricht said. "We don’t have any information on that person, any kind of description."

The victim wasn’t hurt, and, in the end, all they got was her purse.

“This is quite brazen," Ungricht said. "These individuals actually went above and beyond here to obtain a woman’s purse. Normally in a case such as this you’d see them do something a little more extreme like try to take the vehicle or do a kidnapping."

Now she’s terrified.

“She is very afraid of the possibility that they could come back and hurt her again," Ungricht said. "She is in fear of what happened and very shaken up."

She described the man who held the knife to her throat as a black man in his 20s, with a slim build, wearing a black beanie cap.

The suspect who took her purse is only described as a male adult. The vehicle is a black, newer model, four-door truck, possibly with a lift kit and front end damage. Police are also looking into the possibility the truck was stolen.

“The vehicle being a newer model truck, to just ram into another vehicle to steal property, that someone would do that with their own vehicle,” says Ungricht.

Police are hoping you can help them find these dangerous suspects.

“This is something we don’t see very often, and we hope we can catch these individuals, bring them to justice, so this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Ungricht said.

Police say if you know or see these suspects, or the car, call police, but don’t approach them because they’re dangerous.