Police Dispatch

What the Devil?

Foothills Area

Jan. 2, 12:46 p.m.

A mentally ill halfway-house resident badly assaulted a peer while believing the devil was chasing him, according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.

Sheriff's deputies found the subject's victim with a 3-inch-long abrasion on his forearm, oozing blood—the result of a wrestling match between the attacker and his victim, who said he'd been forced to tackle the subject to the ground several times after he randomly started punching the victim and would not stop.

The bleeding man said he was minding his own business when the subject—his housemate—approached him and said he "wanted to go to the hospital" (apparently not for a physical ailment), going on to say "the devil was after him."

He reportedly then started punching the victim in the arm and chest until the other man decided to push him to the ground and hold him there for about a minute, trying to calm him. But when the victim first released his attacker, he said, the man started punching him again—with increasing anger—so his opponent had to throw him down another time. The subject was reportedly so unremitting in his punches that he had to be taken down three more times before law enforcement intervened.

The subject acknowledged he had schizoaffective disorder and couldn't explain his wrath (though asked if he liked the housemate, he stated, "Not really"). After deputies tackled and secured him, he relaxed slightly but still couldn't justify his actions, simply saying he was "very religious" and the halfway-house management wouldn't hospitalize him even though "the devil was at him"—so he "flip(ped) out." He said "he did not feel good" earlier but was now sorry for his actions and actually wanted to go to jail. Deputies obliged him.

Rebuked, Then Puked

UA Area

Jan. 22, 11:30 p.m.

An intoxicated University of Arizona student humorously misspoke the name of his dorm to police, then projectile vomited 7 feet all over their car, UA Police Department report stated.

Officers encountered the young man sprinting alone up Mountain Avenue; as they pulled up alongside him, he slowed his pace to a stumble, barely able to balance.

Finally, he stopped and talked with them, providing his ID (which showed him underage), and drunkenly said he was "trying to go to ... PCP."

It turned out he wasn't on PCP (he'd meant to say "PSP," short for the Posada San Pedro dorm, where he lived)—but he admitted he had drunk "a good amount" of Rolling Rock beer—enough that officers determined a hospital should probably assess him. While waiting for an ambulance, he endorsed their determination by suddenly spewing a vast amount of vomit from his seat on a bench all the way to the side of a patrol vehicle (whose window was luckily rolled up) parked 7 feet away. He was taken to the University Medical Center.