Man Arrested After Series of Failed Crimes

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah (AP) - A man with a knife tried unsuccessfully to rob two women, failed at breaking into an apartment, carjacked and crashed a vehicle and failed to get a woman to give him her toddler, authorities said.

Joe Lucero, 30, was taken to a hospital and was expected to remain there for several days for observation before being booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of multiple felonies, South Salt Lake Police Capt. Tracy Tingey said.

The crime spree began about 5:45 a.m. Sunday when a man attempted to rob two women at knife point in the parking lot of a convenience store, Tingey said.

When the women got away without giving him any money, he ran to an apartment complex tried to break into an apartment.

When that failed, the man crossed the street and forced two people out of a Jeep at knife point. He took off in the vehicle but rolled it, suffering cuts and bruises.

He then entered an apartment complex, and attempted to break into several apartments, leaving bloody handprints on the doorknobs, Tingey said.

The assailant then kicked in the door of the Hernandez family.

He barricaded himself and the family inside their apartment, and paced up and down screaming, "Police! I have a gun," Melva Hernandez said.

She grabbed her 18-month-old daughter, Esperanza, and hid her in the bedroom closet. The assailant broke a coffee table in the living room and then went into the bedroom and began tearing the sheets off the bed.

Melva Hernandez said she offered him money, but he refused and asked for the toddler.

"He looked at me and said, 'The baby,'" Melva Hernandez said. "That freaked me out. I said 'Uh-uh. You got to get through me.'"

When the man heard police cruisers approaching the apartment complex, he jumped out a bedroom window.

Police spotted Lucero and arrested him. He was transported to St. Mark's Hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. Tingey said he became agitated at the hospital and had to be sedated.