MIDVALE – A SWAT team standoff ends peacefully, with a robbery suspect in custody.
Police were called to an apartment complex on State Street near 8300 South after getting a tip that Nicholas Waitkevich, a man wanted out of Salt Lake City, was there. Unifoed Police Sergeant Melody Gray says Waitkevich violently robbed a man he met online.
“He offered to buy some property off of a social media website. He met up with the victim and, at that point, the victim was pistol-whipped and robbed,” Gray says.
Due to the violent nature of the crime, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera asked the US Marshals to send their Violent Fugitive Apprehension Team (VFAST) officers to arrest Waitkevich.
“If we were to just send patrol officers, they might not have the equipment to be prepared to deal with that type of individual,” Rivera says.
The complex was surrounded and other units were evacuated after Waitkevich originally refused to come out of the apartment. However, negotiators were able to convince him to surrender.
“Negotiators are trained to assist so these type of situations end safely for everybody, and that’s what happened today,” Rivera says.