GRANITE FALLS — Drugs are love, and police officers are against drugs, so they cannot enforce the laws in Granite Falls, because love is the law.
That was the gist of a two-page manifesto that a Granite Falls man wrote and then broke into City Hall to deliver to police this past weekend.
The incident started about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Granite Falls police officer Rich Rutherford was inside the police department doing paperwork. The police station is closed to the public on weekends.
“I heard this guy banging on the door,” Rutherford said Monday. “I went outside to see what he wanted.”
He then saw the suspect across the street, breaking into City Hall. The man kicked in the glass door by aiming at the wooden frame.
“I thought to myself, ‘Am I really seeing what I’m seeing?’” Rutherford said. “I was just shocked.”
The man reportedly went inside City Hall and tried to steal a racing trophy that a public works employee recently won in Monroe, Granite Falls Police Chief Dennis Taylor said. The trophy was on display on the counter. The man apparently decided to drop it before leaving.
Rutherford went to confront the suspect. As the man came outside, the officer held him at gunpoint and ordered him to the ground. The man was holding his manifesto out in front of him, Rutherford said.
“He just kept saying he needed me to read this paper,” Rutherford said. “He said he’d written letters to President (Barack) Obama and the mayor and the police chief, and no one would listen to him, so he said he was going to kick open the front door so someone would listen to him.”
The man refused to obey commands and allegedly punched Rutherford. Additional officers arrived. The man was subdued with a shock from an electric stun gun and placed in restraints.
The suspect continued to yell about his manifesto during the arrest, Rutherford said.
Taylor on Monday said he was glad his officers and the man weren’t seriously hurt.
“(Rutherford) managed to get this guy, this mentally ill subject, into custody without hurting him,” the chief said. “That’s important.”
Sundays in Granite Falls usually are quiet, Rutherford said.
The 30-year-old man was being held Monday at the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of burglary and assault.
There was no obvious evidence that drugs or alcohol were involved in the incident, according to police.
The man has a history of mental health issues and has spent time in Western State Hospital. He has felony convictions for harassment and car theft. In this case, he reportedly made threats to kill police officers, court papers show.
In the arrest report from Granite Falls, another officer described the man’s manifesto:
“I did review the papers (the man) had,” the officer wrote. “It talked about what is love. It talked about the law and what acts are criminal and what acts are not. It talked about drugs being good and even how having sex with a minor was not against the law. It talked about how smart (the man) was and that his criminal record will go away because of how smart he is.”
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com
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