West Camino Del Paloma, Nov. 17, 10:51 p.m.
A man attempting to defend his wife gathered a small posse armed with landscaping tools and then vandalized another man's trailer, said a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.
The Sheriff's Department was informed of the incident by a 12-year-old girl, who called from the trailer to say there were several people with shovels outside her window banging and breaking glass. She thought they were monsters coming out of the desert to kill her.
Shortly after the call, a sheriff's deputy was sent to the residence of one of the suspected vandals, who had by that time returned home; he was handcuffed and interviewed. The suspect admitted vandalizing the trailer in question, explaining that an acquaintance of the family who lived there had made threats to his wife, and he, his stepson and his stepson's friend had gone there to confront him. When the man they sought refused to leave the trailer, the suspect said, he and his companions began to throw rocks and hit the trailer with shovels. Describing the events leading up to the crime, the suspect's wife stated that she had earlier been at the now-vandalized residence visiting a female friend when the friend's boyfriend became jealous and accused the two of being "dykes." The wife then became a "smart aleck," and an argument ensued. Afterward, the friend's boyfriend followed her around closely, possibly possessing a gun. She stated that when she described the incident to her husband, he told her he was going outside to "take a piss," but actually went with "the boys" to her friend's trailer to confront her friend's boyfriend. She did not know whether violence had been planned.
The husband was arrested for criminal damage.
Poking Around in the Wrong Place
West Valencia Road, Nov. 14, 1:03 a.m.
A fugitive man apparently on a day-long crime spree was finally apprehended after harassing a woman at a bar, according to a PCSD report.
A sheriff's deputy was dispatched to the bar in question regarding an intoxicated male who refused to leave the premises. The deputy confronted and handcuffed the suspect, who identified himself as Mr. Howard.
The sheriff next interviewed a woman in the bar, who stated that Howard had approached her when she was outside waiting for a ride and had told her he was running from the law. Earlier that day, he informed her, he had "gotten pissed off at a friend and burned his car." Howard then began to touch the woman inappropriately and repeatedly poked her in the back of the neck. She entered the bar to get help, but Howard did not stop poking her neck and commenced yelling at her.
Howard was arrested and booked for numerous offenses, including two shoplifting charges from earlier that day.
