Man carrying knife in Walmart pepper sprayed while resisting arrest

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Two men were peppered sprayed Wednesday morning by police at Walmart when one of them resisted arrest for carrying a weapon.

According to a police report written by Texarkana, Arkansas Police Corporal Holly Smith around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning she received a call from someone with loss prevision at the Arkansas Blvd. Walmart that there was a man in the store with a large knife.  “He advised several older women had reported being scared and uneasy due to a younger male being in the store with a large knife.”

Smith and Officer Woolery responded to the store where an employee showed them two male suspects, later identified as 18-year-old Dakota Attaway and Andrew Glenn, on video.

“We watched them for a few moments and noticed Attaway place his hand over his front right pants pocket and continue walking through the store.” Smith writes in the report. “It was immediately apparent Attaway was attempting to conceal the object in his pocket, and employee advised this was the last place the knife was seen.”

The two officers made contact with the suspects near the registers on the grocery side of the store near the exit door.

“Due to Attaway being seen with a knife by several individuals, as well as him attempting to conceal the item in his front right pants pocket, he was immediately detained for officer safety, as well as for the safety of the customers and employees on scene,” writes smith in the report.

According to Smith Attaway immediately became argumentative and tensed up when she informed him they would be walking to the loss prevention office.
 

 

“He continued to argue, and did not willingly walk to the office. He stopped several times and had to be instructed numerous times that we would discuss the matter when we were in the office and away from the public.”

Once inside the office Smith searched Attaway and found a small pocket knife and a large fixed blade knife with a blade length of 4 inches tucked into his waistband.

“Attaway became very argumentative and irate, and began trying to remove himself from against the wall as I searched him for more weapons,” writes Smith in the report. “I explained he was being talked to due to having this weapon, and due to numerous people being concerned about its presence in the store. ”

Due to the size of the knife, as well as it being displayed in the store where several individuals could see Smith felt he carried it for the purposes of using it as a weapon to possibly use against someone, or possibly to commit a crime. So Smith attempted to place Attaway under arrest for carrying a weapon at which time attempted to resist and refused to comply with officers.

“I used my body weight as well as force to attempt to keep him on the wall, but he continued to push his body off the wall, move around in an attempt to get out of my grip, and also attempted to turn around, with success, a couple of times.,” writes Smith. “I instructed him numerous times to comply and to calm down, and to stay against the wall. Due to him having the weapon as well as refusing to obey commands to comply, I was unsure of his intentions when he turned around to face me, and I was unsure what his actions would be should he get out of my grasp”

Due to Attaway refusing to comply and taking an aggressive stance he was sprayed by Officer Woolery with a short burst of his department issued OC spray each time he did.

“I was unable to continue with the investigation and to identify Attaway at the time due to his behavior, so he was also charged with Obstructing Governmental Operations,” writes Smith.

Glenn was also taken into custody for Obstructing Governmental Operations due to his unwillingness to comply with the investigation, and was sprayed with OC spray as well by Officer Woolery.

Both subjects were transported to the Bi-State Jail and banned from Walmart per their request.

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