WEST VALLEY CITY — Police arrested a man who they say attacked and stabbed a man as he was renting a movie from a kiosk late Friday. The victim then grabbed a handgun from his car and shot his alleged attacker in the leg.
The incident began about 11 p.m. when a man got out of his car at a Holiday Oil gas station, 4391 W. 3500 South, to rent a movie at a Redbox machine. As he was at the kiosk, a man came up behind him, stabbed him in the side of the neck with a pocket knife, then ran off, said West Valley Police Lt. Jeff Conger.
"At first, the victim thought he’d only been punched, but realized he was bleeding. He went to his car, grabbed his handgun that he had, and fired several rounds toward the suspect that was running away," Conger said. The man was struck once in the leg.
The man with the knife had just been inside the gas station purchasing beer when he walked out and stabbed the man, the lieutenant said.
“It seems like kind of a weird case because it doesn’t seem like they know each other or (that) anything was really said,” Conger said, adding that the incident does not appear to be gang-related.
Officers were sent to the gas station on reports that shots had been fired. After arriving, they transported the victim, 23, to the hospital where he was treated and later released.
Officers, with the help of police dogs, tracked down the suspect in a nearby neighborhood and transported him to a hospital to have his gunshot wound treated.
David Tuipulotu Vea, 21, was then booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person.
The man who was stabbed was not arrested.
“For the most part … it looks like it’s going to be a self-defense case," Conger said. “I don’t think right now we’re looking at any charges on the victim at this time.”