Blow by blow, River Falls police step in to halt the fighting

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Local officers were more like referees this past week breaking up and investigating fights. Sometimes even the sick turned combative. At 1:35 a.m. Sunday, April 15, a 21-year-old Afton, Minn., man was found lying by the curb in his vomit at Elm and Main streets. He gave officers a wrong name. When an ambulance arrived, the man allegedly began punching a paramedic.

Later, at the hospital, the man was chased, caught and tackled as he kept trying to leave his bed. Area detox centers were full, but the St. Croix County jail in Hudson agreed to accept and book the man. He was charged with disorderly conduct.

River Falls police also:

--Arrested five young men from Minnesota who were brawling in the northbound lane in the 200 block of South Main Street at 1:25 a.m. Sunday. Some of the fighters were flailing away while lying on the pavement. The five had scuffled earlier at a downtown bar before taking their anger out into the open air. Each was given $177 disorderly conduct citation.

--Arrested a 19-year-old local man for battery Friday afternoon at his apartment on West Johnson Street. The man said he believed a male friend had stolen $25. After telling that friend to stand, he allegedly punched him in the head and kept punching and even kneed him after he had fallen to the floor. The alleged victim was said to have “visible injuries,” including a red lump on the back of his head.

--Arrested a 15-year-old Baldwin boy for marijuana and drug paraphernalia possession the parking lot of St. Bridget Church Sunday afternoon. Police were called there because of an accident. The boy was with his brother in a pickup truck. The officer said he could smell marijuana inside. The boys said no, they lived on a farm and the odor was from shoveling manure. Not so, replied the officer, who said he could sniff the difference between animal poop and pot. After a search of the truck police claim they recovered a glass pipe with burned marijuana residue wrapped in a sweatshirt and a grinder filled with marijuana. The one boy was handcuffed, brought to the police station, given juvenile drug fines totaling $170 and released to his mother.

--Arrested a 35-year-old rural River Falls woman for shoplifting at Dick’s Fresh Market at noon Friday, April 13. The woman allegedly had switched a price label for a package of chicken so it would ring up $2 cheaper. Employees held her until an officer arrived. The woman, who had bought a bag of groceries, said she wasn’t sure she could afford the extra $2. She was booked at the police station and given a $177 retail theft fine.

--Investigated some mysterious rock throwing at a house at 820 W. Division Street last Wednesday afternoon and evening, April 11. Unknown suspects were said to be involved. One rock broke a window. One almost hit an officer. Police at first believed someone was using a slingshot device to hurl the rocks. That night officers brought a Pierce County deputy with a thermal device to try to pinpoint the rock-hurling suspects. A perimeter was set up around the neighborhood and an area near Westside Elementary School was searched. Later, there was suspicion that the rocks were actually being thrown from inside the house in question. Two suspicious knives – one stuck in a pillow, the other in a door – were also found in the house. The incident is still being investigated.

For more, please read Police Beat in the April 18 print edition of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: river falls, news, crime, courts