North La Cholla Boulevard
Nov. 6, 2:47 p.m.
A Joe Blow–type guy—who might've been high—went berserk in a mall, destroying large planters and trees and almost attacking an adult male bystander, according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.
The PCSD got an "unwanted person" call one afternoon from security at the Foothills Mall, 7401 N. La Cholla Blvd., about a man "running around harassing people" and "breaking and kicking things," yelling all the while.
According to security guards following him, the man's path of destruction began as he ran out of the movie theater into the mall's interior, where he saw a FedEx employee standing in the hall and tried to assault him. Outside the entrance to The Vitamin Shoppe, he "took a big swing" at a large clay planter holding a palm tree, breaking the tree at its base and knocking it out of the planter.
He then paused in front of a Claire's Boutique jewelry-and-accessories store long enough to break another large planter—this one containing a ficus tree, which he yanked right out of the pot, breaking its branches as well. (Said the report: "Both plants were damaged to a point where they will not live.")
"Screaming and yelling," the man allegedly moved on to the food court, where he kicked over a garbage can. When one security guard calmly "asked to speak with him about what was going on," the man retorted that "if he keeps following him, (the subject) was going to kill him."
A female shopper said she'd seen the man exiting the theater, at which point he'd turned to her and yelled, "Bitch!" before aiming other expletives at more mallgoers. The woman "felt like (this) was very weird."
A small posse of sheriff's deputies learned the man had just fled to a nearby Walmart store, where they promptly converged. One officer found him in the garden section: a medium-height, moderately heavyset Caucasian male in a blue ball cap, T-shirt and jeans. After showing his ID upon request, he declared he "had to use the restroom" and started walking away. The deputy told him he wasn't free to leave and read him his Miranda Rights; the man refused to answer questions.
He tried to resist handcuffing until another deputy came to help force him into them, sternly saying, "I'm not in the mood for that." The man was found in possession of a "wax pen" containing cannabis oil, for which he claimed to have a medical marijuana card.
Finally subdued by several deputies, he was led to a patrol car and brought to jail for disorderly conduct, threats and criminal damage.
