Monday was a night that brought Halloween festivities to new lows as criminals took the chance to wreak havoc on unsuspecting victims.
As a woman waited in her West Valley home for trick-or-treaters, she was brutally assaulted. As a man escorted a 2 year old who was trick-or-treating, he was hacked with a chain saw in Salt Lake City. And as two men were walking in Salt Lake City, they were beaten and robbed by a man in a gorilla costume.
In West Valley City, a woman answered her front door Monday night expecting to find trick-or-treaters, but instead was confronted by a knife-wielding person wearing a mask like the one worn in the movie "Scream."
When the 19-year-old woman, who lives near 4600 West and 3100 South, opened her front door at about 10 p.m., a person dressed in black with the trademark white mask reached out and slashed her across the face with a knife before fleeing on foot, said police Sgt. Mike Powell.
The woman was transported to the hospital where she received a "fair number" of stitches, he said.
"She's very scared," Powell said Tuesday. "Understandably so. We are concerned about the situation and the circumstances itself. It's a very egregious action and very violent."
About the same time in Salt Lake City, police say a man escorting a woman and a trick-or-treating 2 year old was attacked with a chain saw by someone wearing a multi-colored mask near 1650 S. Redwood Road, said Salt Lake City Police Det. Cary Wichmann.
The woman told officers the man put his arm up to fend off the assault, and the chain saw cut deep into his forearm.
Wichmann said detectives hadn't yet been able to speak with the man, who by the time they were notified of the assault, was heavily sedated at the hospital.
He said there was a language barrier, which made gathering information more difficult, and the woman was very upset. Police hoped to gather more information during follow-up interviews.
Wichmann said police are investigating the condition of the chain saw, but it appears by the man's injuries that the saw was running, but without the chain -- similar to what is used at haunted houses to scare people. He said police are trying to determine if the assault was intentional or perhaps an attempt at a scare-prank gone wrong.
And then, just blocks away, Salt Lake City police continue to look for a rogue gorilla who beat up two men and stole a necklace, an iPod and a wallet before fleeing.
Wichmann said it will be hard to find the suspect, who has likely taken off his hairy costume following a Halloween night assault and robbery that occurred about 10 p.m. near 555 S. Redwood Road.
Two men were walking along the roadway when they were confronted by four men -- one of whom was dressed as a gorilla, said Wichmann. Police said as his three companions watched, the gorilla began beating both of the men.
The victims were expected to recover, but police currently had no suspects in any of the assaults, as the costumes helped cover the attackers' identities. All the assailants were reportedly wearing costumes that blended in with legitimate costume-wearing children and adults.
Any other night of the year, the suspects would have stood out and resulted in people seeing something out of the ordinary.
"Every Halloween, if somebody's going to commit a crime, of course they're going to do it in a mask," Wichmann said. "It's definitely an opportunity for people who are looking to commit crimes to conceal their identity."
The investigation into all three incidents continued Tuesday and police asked anyone with information to contact them.
Twitter @sltribjanelle Alt Heads:
Police sorting out Halloween mayhem that injured four
Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake TribuneAll Rights Reserved
