ST. GEORGE — Two men were arrested over the weekend following unrelated incidents – the first was reported on Friday involving a man that was thrown through a window on Red Cliffs Drive, while the second involved a suspect who reportedly pulled a knife on a man with small children at the park in St. George.
The first incident was reported shortly before 5 p.m. Friday when emergency dispatch began to receive calls about two men actively fighting at the Zion Outlet Mall on North Red Cliffs Drive.
One of the 911 callers said “the two males even broke a large glass window during the course of this altercation,” the officer noted in the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest.
Officers responded and found one of the men who was holding his arm and bleeding. The officer also noted that one of the lacerations to the man’s arm was more than 10 inches long and very deep.
The man told police that shortly before the incident, he was smoking a cigarette near one of the restaurants when another man approached and told him he had to be a certain number of feet from the entrance of a building to smoke a cigarette.
He said the suspect then swung at him and pushed him through the large glass window located in the front of the restaurant.
The officer looked over at the window that was broken and estimated it to be roughly 10 feet tall by 6 feet wide, with broken glass littering the area.
The suspect was located approximately 100 feet from where the altercation reportedly took place and was identified as 36-year-old Brian Keith Hatcher, who told officers the other man involved in the incident “pushed off the window” to punch him and broke the glass in the process.
According to the report, the suspect “was very agitated as he spoke loudly and was very disrespectful,” the officer said, as he told officers it was the other man who threw the first punch, which caused him to react, he said.
With conflicting accounts, officers spoke to several bystanders to the incident and “every witness reported the same thing,” the officer wrote, indicating it was Hatcher who was the purported aggressor during the incident.
Eyewitnesses told officers the altercation appeared to have started when Hatcher approached the man and pushed him through the window – causing it to break. The witnesses’ accounts also matched the injuries found on the victim.
The cost to replace the large plate glass window was estimated at $2,500.
The officer also noted the injuries to the man were substantial, so much so that the injury potentially could leave the man with a diminished or altered level of function of the arm that could be long-term. The laceration likely would leave the man with permanent scarring as well.
The suspect was arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility and booked into jail on one felony count of criminal mischief, as well as one misdemeanor count of assault with substantial bodily injury.
Less than 30 hours later, officers were dispatched to Town Square Park on Main Street in St. George shortly after 9 p.m. on Saturday, on a report of a possible assault involving a suspect who was threatening “to shoot people.”
A second witness told police the suspect was holding a knife as he continued yelling, according to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest.
The 911 caller also said the suspect was wearing a dark shirt, dark gray pants and had two backpacks on his person – one on his back and the second on the front of his body.
Officers arrived to find a group of residents near the central area of the park, while one of the first responding officers was ordering the suspect, later identified as 24-year-old Chandler Scott Pitts, to stop and to drop the folding knife he had in his hand.
When the suspect stepped towards the officer, a second officer pointed his flashlight towards the suspect as he readied his taser for deployment, and noticing the taser, the report states, Pitts took a step backward.
The suspect appeared highly agitated as officers continued to shout orders for him to drop the knife, and minutes later, the suspect complied and the knife dropped to the ground.
As officers attempted to take the man into custody, the suspect began “screaming and cursing” at police, and then yelled at the officers to shoot him, followed by demands for officers to give him a gun.
Several minutes later, the suspect stopped resisting and was taken into custody by police.
Meanwhile, officers spoke to the two witnesses, one of whom said he was at the park with his young children and was speaking to his wife on his cell phone when the suspect approached with the knife in his hand. The suspect, the witness stated, began to curse and yell at him as he pointed the knife in his direction, so he placed himself in between the suspect to protect his children.
The second witness said he observed the suspect approach the man with the three small children and started yelling and cursing at him, and he also heard the suspect allegedly threaten to kill the man.
As the witness approached to assist the father if needed, he said the suspect threatened to “kill him and his dog,” the report states. The witness, who was in fear for his safety, pulled his concealed firearm and held it in a low position as he started backing away. At that point, the suspect walked away heading west through the park.
With the suspect detained, officers attempted to search the two backpacks that were still on the suspect, and when Scott reportedly refused to remove the packs, officers cut the straps so the packs could be searched.
Inside of one of the packs officers found a burnt marijuana cigarette, along with a baggie containing suspected marijuana, and a second baggie containing what appeared to be psilocybin mushrooms – which are classified as a hallucinogen.
The suspect was transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility facing two third-degree felony counts of aggravated assault and possession of a controlled substance – also a felony. He also faces multiple misdemeanors, including one count each of possession of marijuana, disorderly conduct, interfering with an arrest and a weapons charge.
Prior to the incident on Saturday, no criminal record could be found on the suspect during a search of court cases, and no injuries were reported.
Following Thatcher’s arrest in connection with Friday’s altercation at the outlet mall, the suspect was formally charged Monday with the misdemeanor assault with bodily injury offense, while the felony criminal mischief charge was dropped before it was filed.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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