Orange police had a hectic time at a 16th Street business at noon Thursday as they made two arrests in separate misdemeanor incidents.
Officer S.J. Mulhollan reported he went to Kroger to assist Acadian Ambulance and the Orange Fire Department with a “combative patient.”
Apparently the man had a medical incident in the store. Mulhollan said the man, however, insisted he did not need medical care.
Kroger had previously issued a trespassing warning against the man, so when the man refused the ambulance, the officer arrested him for misdemeanor trespassing.
As Mulhollan and another officer were dealing with that case, they heard yelling and saw store employees chasing a shoplifter who swiped two beers, a Milwaukee’s Best and a Budweiser Strawberry Rita.
Mulhollan chased the man across the store parking lot to 15th Street, where the man ran southward. Other officers came and joined the chase. Mulhollan went back to take his arrestee to jail.
Officer D.A. Dorman said he chased the shoplifter, who at one point jumped a fence. Dorman finally caught the man at a house on 14th Street. The officer said the two beers were worth a total of $4.64.
34-year-old Johntavis Claudell Broussard of Orange was arrested and taken to the Orange County Jail. He faces a Class B misdemeanor evading arrest charge along with a Class C misdemeanor theft charge.
Meanwhile, Officer Mulhollan took the man he arrested to the county jail. However, the jail staff refused to accept the man because he had an elevated heart rate and was sweating. Mulhollan called for an ambulance and then followed the ambulance in his patrol SUV to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas in Port Arthur.
After the hospital checked and cleared the man, Mulhollan took him back to the jail. 25-year-old Nicholas Erie Cole of Deweyville was booked on a misdemeanor charge of trespassing.
-Mags Toal, KOGT-
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