The Blotter: Cut and run

Police received a call about a person armed with a knife at a house in South Atlanta. Upon arrival, a cop noted, “He told us that he was a federal agent and had very pronounced delusions about where he was.”

Behavioral health workers believed the man had been off his medication for days. They wanted to take the man to Grady Memorial Hospital and urged the cops to help with “assistance in getting him out of the home.”

Cops agreed and got the man outside. “As we got out of the house, the male understood that he was going to Grady against his will,” a cop noted. “He began sprinting as fast as a 58-year-old smoker can run.”

The cop asked health workers if they wanted him to use force to take the man into custody. No, they replied. After the man ran 50 yards, the knife fell from his pocket and he picked it up. “He began running with the knife in his hand,” the cop noted. “Apparently, this changed the opinion of the Grady behavioral health workers and they said they did want him in custody.”

The cop sprinted after the man, chasing him for at least 100 yards while his partner repositioned the patrol car a few blocks away. “The blade of the knife was open and in his hand,” the cop noted. “The male stopped to take his boots off, then continued running. Eventually, he tired out with the knife still in his hand. I feared that he would decide to use the knife to either attack me or defend himself from being taken into custody.” So the cop used his Taser. “The prongs entered [the man’s] back at his waist and his lower shoulder blade.” (The cop deployed his Taser to stop “a 58-year-old smoker” from running away?)

Police took the man in for a psychological evaluation.

Lucky break?

In Castleberry Hill, a cop said a car sped right by his fully marked patrol car. The driver “had his vehicle lights off and also appeared to not have his seat belt on,” the cop noted. The cop pulled the car over and exited his patrol car to speak with the male driver. “I approached the vehicle to make contact with the driver, and obtained his license,” the cop noted. “Then, I heard a thump from the rear of [his] vehicle.” Confused, the cop turned around and realized what caused the thump: “I had failed to put the patrol vehicle in park and it rolled forward.” The patrol car hit the car the cop had pulled over. “The crash bar of the patrol vehicle made contact with the man’s rear bumper, causing a four inch by two inch indentation” in the rear of man’s car. The cop quickly checked on his patrol car — it was OK. “The crash bar was not bent, scratched and neither was the front bumper,” the cop noted.

The driver was startled but not injured. Turns out, the thump may be the driver’s lucky break. “After the fact, using discretion of this incident, I decided not to cite the driver of the vehicle for the traffic infractions.”

Lunch crunch

An Atlanta cop transported a prisoner from the airport to the Clayton County Jail and then decided he was hungry for lunch. The cop drove his patrol car to the Long John Silver’s on Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro. “I stopped at the drive-thru window to purchase my food,” the cop recalled. “As I was leaving, I did not notice that the roadway at the drive-thru window was elevated. I made a right turn and drove off the curb — that’s roughly 1 and a half to 2 feet deep.” The cop left his patrol car in the drive-thru lane (“not wanting to cause any damage to the vehicle”) and called the Jonesboro Police Department to make an accident report.

Jonesboro police arrived and took photos, and a towing company moved the patrol car out of drive-thru lane. The cop noted that his patrol car did not appear to have any physical damage — and besides, he wasn’t the only customer that made this mistake. “It was observed by myself that another vehicle was involved in the same mishap as myself, but after a few minutes was able to move their vehicle,” the cop noted. “Also, there was evidence of this being a constant problem due to all the scrape marks and damage to the curb. Also, one of the employees at Long John Silver’s stated quote ‘It happens all the time.’”

No exit

A cop received a call about a fight on Campbellton Road. “While en route to the call, I made a turn into the parking lot at 1985 Campbellton Road in order to turn around. The parking lot was not well lit and appeared to have an exit on the opposite end from where I turned in,” the cop recalled. However, that “exit” was an illusion. “While trying to turn out of the parking lot, I ran into a brick elevated curb,” the cop noted.

The cop hopped out of the patrol car and saw damage to the front end of his car. Even worse: “I then noticed a clear fluid running from the bottom of the vehicle.”

Items in the Blotter are taken from actual Atlanta police reports. The Blotter Diva compiles them and puts them into her own words.