Police in Salt Lake City conducted the drug bust earlier this month. (Salt Lake City Police Department)
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Highway Patrol and several other law enforcement agencies responded to multiple crashes Friday morning caused by suspected carjackings.
The UHP said the situation started around 5 a.m. at the Salt Lake City International Airport after a 20-year-old man became disorderly at a ticket counter. The man has since been identified as Joseph Thomas Green.
Salt Lake City Police said Green got mad because he couldn’t buy a same-day ticket to Denver.
Though officers were called to the scene at the airport, Green left before they arrived. By that time, police said the suspect had carjacked someone at the airport.
Police said he crashed into two cars near 900 West 2100 South before trying to carjack a second car. The person Green attempted to carjack fought back, so Green gave up and continued driving in the car he had originally carjacked.
From there, the UHP said the suspect crashed into a building in South Salt Lake, successfully carjacked a second car, and got onto I-80.
And just before 6 a.m., the UHP began receiving reports of multiple crashes on I-80 in Parley’s Canyon.
Roden said the carjacker caused a suspected five different crashes. The crashes happened in both Salt Lake County and Summit County.
The 20-year-old man crashed in Summit County near the 189 Junction and tried unsuccessfully to carjack a different car, but a Summit County Deputy arrested him before he could.
UHP, the Salt Lake City Police Department Aiport Division, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and South Salt Lake Police all helped to investigate the incident.
The UHP said it is investigating impairment related to the I-80 crashes.
This story has been edited to reflect that no flights were canceled on Friday morning out of Salt Lake City International Airport and that the suspect did not have an existing reservation.