In a video circulating on social media, police are seen being forced to fire two rounds from a JPX Pepper Gun in an attempt to arrest a man in the Emergency Room of Wadley Hospital
Shawn Vaughn, our local PIO for TTPD, responded in the comment thread of the video saying:
I’m the Public Information Officer for the Texarkana Texas Police Department. Please allow me to share some information about this situation that you don’t see in this video.We were called to the hospital approximately an hour before this on a disturbance involving the same man after he became mad at the nursing staff and was acting erratic. The man agreed to calm down and checked himself into the hospital for medical treatment. However, he again became abusive to the nurses after the officers left. At that point, one of the security guards asked him to leave the room. The man responded by getting in the security guard’s face and shoved him backwards. The guard then restrained him in a body lock and removed him from the room. That’s when we were called back for the second time.When our officer arrived, he was told that the hospital staff wanted him to leave the premises because of his aggressive behavior and having been involved in several disturbances with the staff. From the previous call, the officer knew that the man had several knives in his pocket, had told officers that he’d previously used drugs, and was feeling paranoid. The officer approached the man and told him that he had to leave the hospital. However, the refused and said that he was not going anywhere. At that point, the officer told him that he was under arrest and told him to stand up so he could be handcuffed. The man briefly complied but then started trying to turn around and hold his hands up the keep the officer from getting close to him. The officer repeatedly told the man to submit to the arrest and he continued to ignore his directions. At that point, he deployed one round from his JPX Cobra pepper gun to the man’s face to try to take him into custody without violence and someone getting seriously hurt. However, the man climbed up on the counter and was headed toward the nursing staff in the back. The officer then deployed a second round from the JPX Cobra pepper gun. The man was cut off from being able to run in the back so he then came back across the desk, knocking off the computer equipment as the climbed across. He ran down the hallway as he tried to get away from the officer and was tackled by another man who saw him running. The man continued to fight and kick after he was on the ground and it took the officer and three other men to get him in handcuffs.He was transported to the Bi-State Jail where he continued to try to fight the corrections officers.
