HEBER CITY — A Pleasant Grove man was arrested Tuesday morning after about 20 people were held hostage with a handgun inside a medical clinic.
The man had a scheduled appointment but seemed to become agitated with another patient in the waiting room at the Wasatch Medical Clinic, located at 55 S. 500 East.
The other patient was wearing a sanitary mask for health reasons and carried a laptop computer, said Heather Probst, who works at the clinic.
When that patient was called to see a doctor, the man drew a gun, pointed it at the patient and told him to get on the floor, saying he was an undercover FBI agent and that the other man had a bomb in his laptop, police were told.
One of the secretaries called 911 at 10:02, one minute after the man brandished the gun. Everyone who could crouched under desks, Probst said.
The secretary told the dispatcher during the five-minute call that a man with a gun was standing over a patient, with a gun pointing at the patient's head.
Meanwhile, the gunman shouted that he had a badge in his truck that would show he was an agent, Probst said. He told them he wasn't going to hurt anyone. She said he became increasingly agitated whenever the office phone rang.
"I just kept picking it up and hanging it up," she said.
Officers from Heber City Police Department, the Wasatch County and Summit County sheriff's offices, Utah Highway Patrol and Utah State Parks were sent to the clinic, which they surrounded, said Heber police spokesman Sgt. Jason Bradley.
Shortly before they arrived, two clinic employees escaped out the building's south door, and two others broke through a screen to go out of a west window, Probst said.
Heber police Sgt. Perry Rose began talking with the suspect, who was on a cell phone with a brother and an ecclesiastical leader.
At 10:26 a.m., Rose said, he was able to persuade the man to put down his loaded .40-caliber handgun. The man was arrested without further incident, Bradley said.
Rose later said the badge the man had was a genuine law enforcement badge, but it did not belong to the FBI.
A 35-year-old man was booked into the Wasatch County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping and impersonating an officer.
E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com