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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Christian Wolfe Hopkins, 25, is charged with aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult in Orem.
- The Eagle Mountain man allegedly pushed a man with Parkinson’s, fracturing his pelvis, believing he was “high on meth,” charges say.
- Police detained Hopkins after he allegedly fled; he expressed surprise at facing charges.
OREM — An Eagle Mountain man is facing a criminal charge accusing him of pushing a man with Parkinson’s disease inside a fast food restaurant, fracturing the victim’s pelvis.
Christian Wolfe Hopkins, 25, was charged Thursday in 4th District Court with aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult, a second-degree felony; failing to stop for police, a class A misdemeanor; and disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor.
A man was at a McDonald’s in Orem with his daughters and grandchildren on May 4, when he left the play area to get a drink refill. The man “has Parkinson’s disease and it is difficult for him to perform physical tasks,” according to charging documents.
While trying to get a refill, the man was confronted by Hopkins, who pushed him into a wall, causing him to fall to the floor.
“(The man) suffered a fracture to his pelvis. (Hopkins) then threw food against the wall,” charging documents state.
Police responding to the scene spotted Hopkins near the McDonald’s and stopped him based on a description given by witnesses. After being told he was being detained, Hopkins “suddenly began to sprint across the road, running in between two townhomes” and “attempted to climb a fence to escape,” the charges allege.
After police caught up with him and took him into custody, Hopkins told the officers “that he had assaulted the man due to believing that he was ‘clearly high on meth’ and ‘molesting kids.’ When asked what led him to believe these things, he stated that he ‘just knew,'” a police booking affidavit states.
“Christian additionally stated that the victim’s constant movement was being done on purpose and was intentionally disrespectful. Christian even expressed surprise that he was in trouble for doing what he did, based on what he believed he knew,” the affidavit says.
Because of the victim’s Parkinson’s disease, police say he is “unable to stop his hands from shaking and suffers from great limitation, physically, due to the disease.”
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.