Four police officers were needed to subdue and shackle a suspected shoplifter at a Family Dollar store Monday night. Besides having items like body spray in his pants, police found a stun gun converted to hold two razor blades sharpened to points.
After the officers managed to get him into the patrol unit, he went on the floor and began shaking, saying he was having a heart attack. Even though medical personnel had already checked him, he ended up going by ambulance, with an officer inside with him, to the Southeast Texas Medical Center in Port Arthur.
The hospital gave him medical clearance and he was then taken to the Orange County Jail. 38-year-old Jacob Clark Wood of Orange faces a misdemeanor charge of failure to identify, misdemeanor resisting arrest, and the state jail felony of evading arrest with previous convictions.
Police were called to the Family Dollar, 1604 16th Street, about 8:30 p.m. Monday because of a man and woman shoplifting. Store personnel said the man was putting items in his pants and the woman was hiding goods in her purse.
Officer N.R. Medina said the man told him he only took one item and pulled the body spray out of his pants. However, officers also found other items like makeup and deodorant. During a pat-down, they found a battery-powered stun gun with the sharpened razors. In addition, Medina said the man had a trespass warning against him at the store.
Officers handcuffed the man outside the store, but he managed to slip a hand out. When police tried to get the cuff back on, he twisted the cuffs around in an attempt to injure an officer’s fingers. Medina reported the man then pushed and pulled at the officers and managed to start running away.
Four officers got him on the ground and then got more hand restraints and shackles, according to the police report. The man asked for medical attention. Medical personnel checked his vital signs and said he was okay to go to jail.
However, when the officer was driving him to the jail, the man went down on the floor of the vehicle and said he was having a heart attack. The officer put on his emergency lights and got the man to the fire station, where EMTs checked him. They then recommended he be taken by Acadian ambulance to the medical center. Medina reported the man was released by the hospital and then taken to the Orange County Jail. The female was not charged.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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