Alleged hatchet-wielding robber is arrested, again
by Pat Reavy, KSL.com · KSL.comEstimated read time: 2-3 minutes
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- A man who police say has a history of robberies while armed with a hatchet was arrested in Salt Lake City.
- James Michael Retic, 39, faces charges in several cases.
SALT LAKE CITY — A man who police say has a history of robbing others while armed with a hatchet was arrested, again, early Wednesday.
James Michael Retic, 39, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of attempted aggravated assault, attempted aggravated robbery and attempted vehicle burglary.
Salt Lake City police were called to a 7-Eleven at 887 E. 400 South just before 4 a.m. on a report of a man with a hatchet. Officers arrived to find Retic holding the weapon and learned he had approached a man in a car, "raised the hatchet in a threatening manner, yelling and screaming at him," and "attempted to open his car door handle while holding the hatchet in his hand," a police booking affidavit states.
Police were able to take Retic into custody. No injuries were reported.
Officers noted in the affidavit that Retic "continually uses a hatchet to commit crimes. He has been arrested multiple times within the last few months on felony charges involving a weapon."
On Oct. 31, Retic was arrested for investigation of drug-related charges. Police said in their booking statement Retic was also in possession of a hatchet at the time of that arrest.
On Aug. 23, he was arrested for investigation of aggravated robbery and possession of drug paraphernalia. In that case, police say Retic went to the 7-Eleven at 309 E. 400 South, stole items from the store and then "pulled a hatchet out of his pocket proceeding to get in a fighting stance against the victim," another booking affidavit states.
On July 22, Retic was arrested after trying to get away from police on a bicycle. When he was arrested, officers found Retic was in possession of drugs and a knife, according to a police booking affidavit.
A preliminary hearing for several of those cases is scheduled in the 3rd District Court on Thursday.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Related topics
Police & CourtsUtahSalt Lake County
Pat Reavy
Pat Reavy interned with KSL NewsRadio in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL NewsRadio, Deseret News or KSL.com since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.