A homeless man intent on harassing staff and customers at the McDonald’s located near the Santa Monica Pier entrance was arrested on Saturday, April 25, after causing a scene.
An officer of the Santa Monica Police Department was called out to the McDonald’s at the corner of Second Street and Colorado at 7:45 am in order to investigate a disturbance.
The reporting party had informed dispatch that a transient was at the restaurant and was being disruptive and refusing to leave the premises.
On arrival the officer spoke with the security guard at the restaurant who said the suspect had in fact left the restaurant a few seconds earlier and was at that time chasing another person down the street.
The officer hastened outside and spotted the suspect crossing the street in pursuit of another person.
The officer then told the suspect to halt and to sit on the curb.
The officer had noted that the suspect had appeared to be highly agitated and the suspect had claimed that he was chasing the other person down the street because the other person had thrown a cup of coffee over him.
The officer made the suspect sit in the curb and told the suspect to stay and not to return inside the McDonald’s restaurant.
The officer then went back to McDonald’s and continued to chat with the security guard but was suddenly interrupted by the suspect who was by then lying in the middle of the street yelling, “take me to jail, take me to jail.”
The officer returned to the suspect and told him to sit on the curb once again.
The officer then checked the police computer system to see if the suspect had any court orders to stay away from the McDonald’s.
The officer discovered that this man did indeed have such orders and when the suspect arose from the curb and informed the officer that he intended to go inside the McDonald’s the officer arrested the suspect.
This 36-year-old homeless man was taken to jail and charged with violating a court order. Bail was set at $5,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
