An intoxicated 42-year-old homeless man who bit a police officer was arrested on Friday, June 26.
An officer of the Santa Monica Police Department, who was on a routine patrol in the area of Pico Blvd. and Ocean Ave., was flagged down by a driver of a vehicle at 11:18 am that was parked at a meter on the street.
The officer informed dispatch that he was attending to a situation at the location and the dispatch operator told the officer that they had just received a call from the same individual requesting assistance for a friend who was possibly suicidal.
The officer then began to investigate and noticed that the suspected suicidal person was seated in the back seat of the vehicle and appeared to be highly intoxicated.
The officer also spoke with the reporting party who said that he and other friends had become concerned about the suspected suicidal person earlier that day after the friend had repeatedly told them that he believed he was insane and should therefore die.
The friend told the officer that the suspected suicidal person had been placed inside the car with the assistance of other friends so that he could be driven to a medical facility.
The friend then said that on the way to the medical facility the suspected suicidal person had become agitated and threatened to launch himself out of the moving vehicle and into traffic.
The officer spoke with this man who told the officer that he had been drinking copious amounts of alcohol and was “just sad.”
Personnel from the Santa Monica Fire Department attended the scene and offered to transport the man to hospital for evaluation, but the person refused.
The officer decided to take the person to a walk-in psychiatric facility but when the officer attempted to secure the man he started screaming and struggling violently.
Other officers attended the scene and attempted to secure the man but he continued to scream and yell and then started to bang his head against the glass divider of the police car.
In order to avoid additional harm to the man the officer requested that the Santa Monica Fire Department return to the scene with an ambulance so that the person could be restrained securely on a gurney.
As the officers were moving the man from the police vehicle to the ambulance the person bit one of the attending officers on the wrist resulting in a substantial injury and as a result the person.
After he had been evaluated at a local hospital, he was transported to Santa Monica Jail and charged with battery upon a police officer. Bail for this man was set at $25,000.
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 portrayeSd 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.
