On New Year's Eve in Provo, a dispute in a parking lot rapidly escalated into violence when Esston Aluqdah, a 32-year-old Arizona man with no permanent Utah residence, reportedly assaulted four individuals with a pocket knife, landing them all in the hospital. According to the Provo Police Department, the incident occurred outside the Travelers Inn, located at 70 East 300 South. As KUTV reported, the episode began with a verbal confrontation between Aluqdah and another man that turned physical when Aluqdah is alleged to have produced the knife and stabbed the man multiple times.
According to KSL, Aluqdah subsequently knocked the man out and continued to hit him. He also pointed the knife at a woman attempting to intervene, allegedly cutting her wrist and threatening her life. A third person was held at knifepoint by Aluqdah, who then proceeded to attack an uninvolved fourth individual with a punch and stomps to the head, leaving them unconscious.
Authorities responded swiftly to the chaos, arriving at the scene around 8:30 p.m. The subsequent investigation revealed, through surveillance footage, the sequence of attacks, leading to Aluqdah's arrest on counts of aggravated assault. A release by the Provo Police Department, as per Gephardt Daily, indicated that the injured were transported to Utah Valley Hospital in stable condition and that Aluqdah was booked into the Utah County Jail for two counts of felony 2 aggravated assault, and two counts of felony 3 aggravated assault.
