Some kids never outgrow the need to play dress up, and that appeared to be the motivation behind the attack that happened outside of the Best Head Salon late Tuesday evening. Officers made the short trip from the Gein to the Salon when the call went out and arrived on the scene of a teenage boy, identity protected by the under aged act, attacking a rather primly dressed woman in an effort to steal her shoes.
Though the youth had managed to draw blood, emergency crews were not called to the scene, implying the injuries were insubstantial. All of the focus, instead, was on the young man who tried to talk his way out of a trip to juvenile hall. Officers on scene warned the young man to stand down, and all of the other bystanders as well, uncertain who were friend or foe at first.
One officer, riding in a cruiser marked with “K9 Unit”, gave warning not to try and run. The unnamed officer was quoted as saying, “Anyone wanting to be a track star will be chased by my dog, not me.” Even with the warning, the brilliant youth decided to try and fling a knife into the crowd around him at one of the off-duty officers identified only as Elvis, before turning to make a run for the street.
The K9 unit was unleashed and the handsome animal swiftly caught and immobilized the fleeing youth to the chorus of many curses and shouts of ‘pig’ thrown the HPD’s direction. One officer Hartigan, who’d arrived to back up the K9 unit, moved in swiftly to get the youth cuffed and transported back to the station for processing.
The relative peace of the scene was broken as a suspect, fleeing from a different emergency call, ran through the crowd with two more officers on his heels; trying to throw a kick toward the other off-duty officer at the scene identified as Caileigh. The assailant was subdued by a laptop thrown by one of the bystanders before the other officers could move in and get him under control.
Even before the scene had cleared, officers were already whisking off to another emergency call elsewhere within the city. With all the tireless and thankless work they do for all the insults, threats, and assault; it’s a wonder we have any officers left to serve and protect the weakest of the Hathian flock.
