SALT LAKE CITY — After nearly eight hours of street closures due to a man who was barricaded inside a Salt Lake City motel, officials say they believe he crawled out of the attic and escaped.
Police say the suspect fled from officers and then barricaded himself inside a room at the Main Street Motel at 1518 S. Main Street around 3 p.m. His name was not provided, and police have not stated what happened before he fled.
Main Street was closed from Kensington Avenue to Bryan Avenue as SWAT and crisis negotiators worked to resolve the situation at around 5 p.m. Police said they called in resources because it was possible the man had a knife.
SLCPD said a "breaching device" was used, but apparently unsuccessful. Officials said as of about 10 p.m., they had still not managed to make contact with the suspect.
Just after 10 p.m. SWAT officers started searching the motel, going through room-by-room, including attic and crawl spaces, searching for the suspect. They could not find him.
At about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, police discovered the individual had crawled out of the motel room into the attic and then somehow completely got out of the hotel without being noticed.
"Despite nearly an eight-hour search for this individual, with our swat teams, we were unable to locate him based on the preliminary information, we believe that the suspect may have actually crawled out out of the motel room into the attic of the mainstream motel and then somehow got out of the area prior to our officers fully setting up the containment area," Brent Weisberg, spokesperson for SLCPD said.
Officials say they know the identity of the individual and they don't believe there is a threat to the community.
"Despite the fact that we were investigating this for almost eight hours, we don't believe that there is any threat to our community," Weisberg said. "Again, we do know his identity and we're working to right now obtain his additional information so we can try to find him."
Road closures in the area were lifted shortly after the search at the motel was completed.
