SALT LAKE CITY – A Utah man who was wanted in a weekend shooting barricaded himself inside a Salt Lake City area fast-food restaurant and fired several times at police during an overnight standoff that ended when the man surrendered after officers fired tear gas into the restaurant, authorities said Wednesday.
Joshua B. Williams, 36, was arrested early Wednesday after firing about 10 rounds at officers during a 6-hour standoff at a Burger King in Magna, Utah, said Unified Police Sgt. Melody Gray.
No officers, restaurant employees or customers were injured, she said.
Officers had been searching for Williams since Saturday when he was suspected of firing several shots at a woman who was letting him stay in her house, said Lt. Dan Bartlett of the suburban Cottonwood Heights Police Department.
Bartlett said officers were in Magna looking for Williams on Tuesday night when Burger King employees called police to report a man had locked himself in the bathroom and was refusing to leave at closing time.
When police arrived, Williams pointed a gun at the officers, Gray said. Officers evacuated along with the restaurant employees, set up a perimeter and called in the SWAT team. That team filled the restaurant with gas several times until at about 5:30 a.m. Williams finally told a robot sent inside the restaurant he wanted out.
Magna is about 14 miles (22 kilometers) from Salt Lake City.
Williams is expected to be booked on several charges related to the standoff and unlawful detention and aggravated assault in the Saturday incident, Gray and Bartlett said.
It was not immediately known if Williams has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
Williams was put on probation in November after pleading guilty to felony possession of a firearm by a restricted person, said Utah Corrections spokesman Liam Truchard.
That same month, Williams also pleaded to two counts of possession of a controlled substance, online Utah court records show. In 2011, Williams pleaded guilty to use of a dangerous weapon in a fight, and was given two years' probation.
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This story has corrected the sentence Williams received in 2018 case to probation.
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