SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Utah) – Robert Ehmann understood he was going to jail.

He was in handcuffs and headed to Lone Peak’s police department. On police body cam, he calmly followed orders and got in the car. Police were also cordial.

He wasn’t expecting this outcome after getting a text message from his landlord at 1:30 in the morning.

“She had an uncooperative AirBNB guest and she had asked him to leave and he was not leaving,” recalled Ehmann.

With a gun in hand, Ehmann went upstairs and told him to leave.

“That’s when he became verbally aggressive,” he said. “He still refused to leave and then lunged out of bed at me. I drew my sidearm, chambered a round, and had it pointed to the floor.”

He gave the man, named Nicholas, three minutes to leave or he’d call 911. He still refused to leave.

The following is a portion of the actual 911 call:

Dispatcher: “911 what’s the address of your emergency?”
Ehmann: “Hello I have a gentleman on my property and I have a gun in my possession.”

Dispatch immediately sent Lone Peak Police to the address Ehmann gave.

When three officers arrived the landlord explained what happened and the police then interviewed Nicholas.

“Out of nowhere, I wasn’t even raising my voice,” Nicholas could be heard on the police body cam. “I wasn’t saying anything wrong. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Out of nowhere this (expletive) guy, this psychopath he goes shoo-shoo (gun sounds) put your (expletive) hands up. Your (expletive) under arrest.”

Ehmann never denied he took out his gun but claimed it was never pointed at him.

In the end, officers arrested him for aggravated assault. Prosecutors later charged him with displaying a handgun during a fight, a Class A misdemeanor.

Nicholas was given a citation for trespassing.

“Which is ironic that they would kick him out by saying you are out of control, but he had more credibility than my client and then they arrested my client,” said Craig Johnson, Ehmann’s attorney.

Johnson tried to get prosecutors to drop charges. He said they refused,
but in the end, the charges were dismissed because there were no witnesses.

“So based on that, the charge as it was dead on arrival but furthermore the prosecutor reached out to me and said not only is that a problem but we can’t find this alleged AirBNB victim.

Ehmann just retired from the military after serving 24-years, even fighting in Afghanistan. And this episode was his welcome home.

“I was still surprised and confused that I even got charged with any of this,” Ehmann said.
Asked if he would do it again. He answered without hesitation.

“A thousand times over,” he said.