PORT ANGELES — A Sequim man has been charged with an altercation with Port Angeles police in which he allegedly grabbed an officer’s duty belt while resisting arrest.
Taylor K.D. Harrison, 30, was charged Monday with two counts of obstructing a law enforcement officer and single counts of third-degree assault of a law enforcement officer, third-degree malicious mischief and resisting arrest, court papers said.
He has been summoned to appear in Clallam County Superior Court on March 27.
Port Angeles police said they responded to a report of a prowler at 3:08 a.m. Feb. 8 on the 100 block of East 14th Street and encountered a man later identified as Harrison holding a crowbar.
Harrison had been letting the air out of a tire of a car parked near a woman’s house, police said.
“When confronted by officers, the man, a large muscular male who is about 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs about 260 pounds, refused to drop the crowbar,” police said in a press release.
Harrison told police that he was “trained to disarm us in the military and could kill us,” Officer Luke Brown said in the affidavit for probable cause.
Police said they had moved to prevent Harrison from driving drunk.
Harrison grabbed and tugged at the right side of Officer Kyle Cooper’s duty belt, reaching for a stun gun and removing a magazine of pistol ammunition, police said.
Officers used a stun gun and empty hand tactics to stop the attack, police said.
“Harrison was a very large, strong man who was using his strength to fight back against our efforts to arrest him,” Brown said.
“Because of this, I pulled my Taser and discharged it. At the same time, Officer (Michael) Johnson and Officer Cooper were able to get Harrison off balance and take him to the ground.
“We quickly handcuffed Harrison, and he did not offer any further resistance,” Brown added.
“I later found one of Officer Cooper’s pistol magazines where we had struggled to arrest Harrison that Harrison had removed from Officer Cooper’s duty belt.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
