A 23-year-old man with an “extensive” criminal record is facing several charges after a police takedown in Lakeside Park Wednesday evening.
Sgt. Paul Burkart says around 7:45 p.m. a worker at the Greyhound station heard pounding on the wall and went outside to see what was happening.
“Without any provocation, a male passenger who was standing outside waiting for the bus and was believed to be responsible for the pounding, punched the employee in the face,” Burkart says. According to witnesses the man then “went berserk.”
He’s believed to have also assaulted a woman waiting for the bus. Burkart says the man then kicked a truck in the mall’s rear parking lot and threatened a couple walking in the area before running toward the Lakeside Park fields, which were very busy.
The man noticed several people following him, “so he turned towards them, removed a knife from a sheath strapped on his belt and threatened to kill them.”
As police arrived, the man hid in the bushes at the west end of the fields.
Several bystanders told officers where he was, and also warned them he had a knife.
The man wasn’t visible, but police noticed some movement in the bushes. They ordered him to come out, but he wouldn’t. After several minutes, he ran from the bushes down a path and onto the fields.
“Police chased the man out onto the fields where he was intercepted and taken to the ground and arrested,” Burkart says. “A large hunting style knife was removed from a sheath on the male’s belt.”
The man, of no fixed address, is wanted on warrants in Ontario.
He was held in custody and was due in court Thursday on charges of assault, possession of a dangerous weapon, mischief, and uttering threats.