Update: Police foot chase nets felony criminal threats suspect

by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

Claremont police arrested a 37-year-old unhoused man at Mallows Park last Friday morning after he reportedly shouted, “I’m going to kill them. They can’t do this to me. I have a gun,” in the vicinity of a mother and her young daughter.

The man, whom police said was apparently from Indiana, was charged with making criminal threats and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.

Police dispatch received a call from a witness at 8:44 a.m. February 3. At least four CPD units responded to the area of Harrison Avenue and Indian Hill Boulevard with lights flashing. After a brief search they located the man walking north on the west side of Indian Hill just north of Harrison. He then crossed Indian Hill heading east and back into Mallows Park, where police caught up with him, ordered him to the ground, and placed him in handcuffs.

According to an eyewitness, a 54-year-old man who has lived adjacent to Mallows Park for 13 years and was jogging nearby at the time of the alleged incident, the mother and daughter had entered the ladies’ restroom at the park when he heard shouting.

The suspect “was in the men’s room,” the witness reported. “He started yelling and swearing that he was going to shoot someone, [that] he had gun. He said, ‘They can’t do this to me’ and a lot of gibberish.”

The mother and daughter then left the park in a hurry, the witness said.

“And once I saw they were safe, I left,” the witness said. “I didn’t wait to see if he had a gun.” The witness then called police, who arrived quickly, he said. “They said ‘Stop.’ He didn’t comply and they had to chase him.”

The suspect was wearing a bulky jacket, and a large bag or backpack at the time of his arrest. Moments earlier he had abandoned a cart on the west side of Indian Hill that contained more of his belongings.

A preliminary search of the suspect’s bag or backpack and other belongings did not turn up a weapon, according to police on scene. Paramedics were called shortly after the suspect was detained because he complained of shoulder pain, but he was medically cleared and then placed under arrest. He was then transported to the Claremont Police Station, booked, and later released to the custody of another agency due to a medical condition.