A bizarre attempted murder of a homeless man in Wendover Friday has police baffled as to motive while the suspect sits calmly in the Elko County Jail.
William P. Lose, 35, of Taylorsville, Utah was arrested in West Wendover without incident for attempted murder and battery with the use of a deadly weapon against Wayne Gattke whose last known residence was a homeless shelter in Salt Lake.
“From what we know the two met the night before,” said Elko Under sheriff Claire Morris. “Gattke asked Lose for a ride back to Salt Lake the next morning and they arranged to meet at the Pilot Truck Stop. Lose did show up and Gattke got into the car.”
What happened next could have been taken from a movie script about the dangers of hitchhiking. Instead of going on I-80, Lose took the road to Ely.
“Gattke told us that Lose said he thought he was being followed by a cop and he (Lose) didn’t like cops,” Morris continued. “We don’t know else what was said in the car but they drove about 12 miles south to the Blue Lakes road took it for about a mile and the Lose allegedly pulled a gun out from under his seat and began to pistol whip Gattke.”
The gun turned out to be an air pistol that resembled a Glock semi-automatic both in appearance and weight.
Lose began the beating in the car and continued it when gattke made to escape outside. The battered man soon lost consciousness and assuming he was dead Lose turned his car around and drove away leaving his air pistol.
“He returned to Wendover went into a casino and asked a guy to help him bury a body,” Morris added. “From what we know he didn’t even know the guy he asked but told him that he had a credit card from Gattke with $8,000 on it and the guy could have half if he helped him get rid of the body. The guy went out to Lose’s car saw it full of blood and left to call the police.”
Unbelievably Lose stayed in Wendover.
Meanwhile the quasi good samaritan did call the police about the same time Gattke was found bloodied but alive on US 93A clutching a mile marker buy a delivery driver.
“He crawled about a mile back to the main road before he was found.” Morris said. “The sheriff deputy TK Haslam responded and Gattke was picked up.”
Meanwhile West Wendover police stopped Lose driving down Wendover Boulevard in his blood soaked car.
He surrendered without incident.
“According to Deputy Haslam he was very quiet and well behaved all the way the way to Elko.” Morris said. “And since he entered jail Monday he has given us no problems. He has lawyered up and is not talking to us. We are looking for a motive. There has to be one but we haven’t found anything yet. What is strange is that he left his weapon at the scene of the crime and what is stranger is that he hung around Wendover. If you think about it, it was an hour and a half maybe two hours between the attack on Gattke and the time Lose was arrested. If he had driven to Salt Lake he might have been there by the time Gattke was found and we would not have had much to go on to catch him.”
Gattke was taken to a Salt Lake hospital where he is listed in stable condition and is expected to recover from the assault.
