Date/Time: 6/16/2011, 2245 Hours
Location: 300 Block 4th Avenue, Olympia
Incident: Penicillin, Spare Change, and Throwing People Through Windows
A window on the front of the Cunningham Building was broken after a sidewalk argument allegedly ended when one person was thrown into it.
According to the police reports, a witness saw two young white males get into a disagreement on the sidewalk, of which the cause is unknown. During the altercation one of the men picked the other up and “slammed” him “into the business window,” causing it to shatter. When the window broke, the witness said that the two young men took off running and he gave chase but was unable to keep up. Before he lost them though he noted that he saw the assaulting assailant remove his hooded sweatshirt and hide it in a bush before heading down an alley.
Notified of the suspects last whereabouts and change of attire, the Olympia Police Department soon located a subject matching the description in the alley behind Jake’s on 4th. The witness was able to positively identify the suspect as the man he had seen slam the other man into the window. An OPD officer who was working foot patrol that day also recognized the suspect from a group of individuals that he had seen discarding a “Spare Change,” sign on the sidewalk in the same vicinity as the broken window roughly five minutes before the incident occurred. An employee of a local business located and retrieved the hidden sweatshirt.
A subsequent search of the suspects backpack revealed a prescription bottle with the label removed containing a vitamin C tablet and 10 penicillin pills. Back toward the scene of the crime one of the officers located the previously discarded “Spare Change” sign, and the Olympia Fire Department was called in to cover the broken window with a sheet of plywood.
The suspect was booked on charges of Malicious Mischief, Littering, Possession of a Legend Drug (penicillin), and a previous warrant for Possession of a Legend Drug.
Date/Time: 6/18/2011, 0105 Hours
Location: 300 Block 4th Avenue, Olympia
Incident: Haymakers By The Hotdog Stand
Two men who chose to engage in a late night/early morning match of fisticuffs in front of Jake’s on 4th near the famous wiener stand quickly drew the attention of the Olympia Police Department.
According to police reports, an OPD officer witnessed the fight while on normal street patrol in his vehicle. As the officer approached the scene he noted that a large crowd had begun to gather on the sidewalk. When the fighters sprawled to the ground and into the street the men nearly knocked over a parked Harley Davidson motorcycle, at which point the officer stepped in and ordered the two men stop fighting.
Although the two immediately stopped fighting and stood up, one of the men attempted to walk away from the scene despite commands to stay put. The third time the officer asked the subject to stop he grabbed hold of the top of a backpack the man was wearing and again told him to stop. The subject again refused and tried to pull away. In response the officer lifted the man up, “Using the backpack as leverage,” and pinned him against the police car. Meanwhile, the officer noticed that the other subject had fled the scene.
When another officer arrived on the scene he helped gain control of the backpacked man and attempted to take over custody so that the other officer could search for the subject who had fled. However, during the transfer of custody a struggle again broke out between the officer and the suspect during which the man’s face struck the right rear window of the police car, breaking the glass. The officer stated that the man had, “continued to flail and resist commands until his head made contact with the rear window, causing the glass to shatter.”
According to the police report the subject began to cooperate immediately after his head broke the glass and he was then securely seated in the back of another patrol car. While in custody the arrested man was vocal with his claims of injustice, reportedly shouting, “Police brutality. You just tossed me through a window.”
One witness stated that the suspect was merely “adjusting himself” before the officer “bashed his face through the glass.” Two other witnesses claimed that the man arrested had only been defending himself in the initial fight, and that the instigator had ridden off on an bicycle. No witnesses were willing to file an official statement regarding the incident however.
The suspect was booked at the OPD jail on charges of Fighting in Public and Resisting Arrest.