No Samurai, just a rock, fist and baseball bat

Talk about it

Did River Falls police have it easier this past week? You be the judge. At least this time they didn’t arrest a suspect for narcotics, marijuana and a samurai sword within reach of where he sat in his van.

Sunday after midnight cops arrested a 20-year-old local guy for allegedly attacking a man and woman and their car with a baseball bat. Fortunately, the suspect had calmed down later and was taken into custody without incident. He apparently went into a jealous rage because he claimed to be in a relationship with the woman and felt uncomfortable seeing her with another man. They had given him a ride home to his apartments at 372 Cemetery Road. The car was badly smashed, including a broken windshield. The victims, both from Hudson, drove away with the suspect allegedly pounding on the car with the bat.

In the past week police were also dealing with:

--A 23-year-old St. Paul man who allegedly knocked another man out cold on Main Street Saturday at 1:15 a.m. The victim, a 27-year-old rural River Falls man, was sticking up for his female friend whom the St. Paul man allegedly had made rude, obscene comments about. Both confronted the man for his remarks and the woman even said she slapped him. The St. Paul man finally said he snapped and punched the woman’s friend. He was found unconscious, bleeding from the mouth and on his back when officers got there. An ambulance took him away. The suspect gave up peacefully and was brought to county jail in Ellsworth.

--A huge fight at a rental building at 930 S. Main St. Sunday after midnight that still has not been completely sorted out. Several of the combatants are UW-River Falls students. One was bashed in the head with a rock and needed stitches. Another college student was also hospitalized. Fighting actually started at another rental house on South Main Street near the bridge. Hard feelings between some of those involved goes back to early September. Racial slurs were used. No arrests, citations or charges yet. This case is still under investigation.

--More burglaries. Three more, actually. Two were from houses when the occupants were gone and doors were unlocked. This follows on the heels of a string of unsolved residential burglaries since June. In all cases, the doors were unlocked and the houses empty. The latest are in the 300 block of Lewis Street and the 400 block of North Winter Street. Key items taken: Semiautomatic Benelli shotgun and a 32-inch LCD flat-screen TV. Another burglary involved someone getting keys from a vehicle in the driveway and entering a locked garage in the 300 block of East Johnson Street. Very little was taken there, but two sets of keys are still missing.

--A 23-year-old female ShopKo employee, who was busted for allegedly stealing cash from the till and candy from the store over the past several weeks.

--A 40-year-old unemployed River Falls man for trying to steal a cartload of groceries from EconoFoods. Along with his $172 shoplifting fine he was given contacts of several social service agencies that could help him.

For more, read Police Beat in the Oct. 29 print edition of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: phil, pfuehler, police, beat, ri er, falls, cops