GOING BATTY
Foothills Area
May 23, 9:41 a.m.
A psychologically unstable man beat a trailer with a baseball bat after resisting mental-health treatment—and ended up in the clink rather than a clinic, according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.
A female trailer-park resident told the PCSD she found her trailer severely banged up, shortly after seeing her neighbor near it wielding a baseball bat.
Long before the incident, she said, she and her husband had encountered the subject several times under bizarre circumstances, such as when he dropped by to say "he was sorry if he had done anything to upset them, but he wished for them to stop hacking his computer."
Another time, she said, he randomly visited to apologize for making noise (which she didn't' report hearing)—stating that "he had some stuff inside of him that he had to get out."
Last night, she said, she did hear loud noises coming from his trailer, which he wasn't polite about at all ... in fact yelling, "Come out here so I can kill you guys ... 'cause I'm not gonna go to prison."
Deputies met with the young man's father, who nearly indeed identified his son as the baseball-bat vandal, saying he'd previously "been found running around the complex with a baseball bat banging on things."
He also said he suspected his son had serious psychological issues, since he "stays up all night playing video games," "does not eat properly" and had already encountered law enforcement because he often "believes people are after him." But, the father insisted, "he did not believe the subject was a danger to himself or others"—and besides, he said, his son was afraid of doctors.
To the father's credit, he said he had been meaning to call the local crisis-response center about his son. Unfortunately, it was too late to prevent deputies from locating and arresting the troubled miscreant instead.
IT'S ONLY LOGICAL...
North La Cholla Boulevard
May 7, 11:15 a.m.
Two homeless people were arrested for drinking in public despite a basically reasonable argument that, as homeless people, they had nowhere else to drink, a PCSD report stated.
Deputies responded to the intersection of La Cholla Boulevard and Ruthrauff Road, where someone reported a male and female panhandling on the median and staggering around near traffic.
Deputies found both subjects at the intersection still drinking—very blatantly. In fact while a deputy interrogated her, the female casually drank from her tall can of Steel Reserve malt liquor, stating, "I'm not bothering anybody, so just leave me alone."
The male subject was more polite but likewise stated that "he wasn't doing anything wrong," pointing out that since "he does not have anywhere to live ... he does not have any place to drink his beer but out in public."
Both subjects were jailed anyway.
