On Thursday, Longmont Police Officers responded to the area of 21st Street and Collyer Street when a report of a man disturbing his former girlfriend and violating a protective order came in.
According to Officer Billy Sawyer, the police believe a history of domestic violence exists between the man and his former girlfriend. With this being the case, the woman was reluctant to speak with police about what occurred to prompt the call to the police.
Often victims of domestic violence are reluctant to talk to police out of fear of further retaliation, Sawyer said.
When police arrived on the scene, the man fled the scene and was pursued by police officers. The suspect then eluded police by ducking into yards along Collyer Street. The officers set up a perimeter and called the K-9 unit to the scene, according to Sawyer.
K-9 Delta, the newest member of the K-9 unit and a Belgian Malinois, was deployed to track down the suspect. Delta tracked the suspect to a nearby backyard where an officer spotted the man’s shoes peeking out of a thick bush, Sawyer said.
The man was issued a warning to surrender and told Delta would be commanded to bite him should he flee again, Sawyer said. The man ran and was chased down by Delta. The man began to fight the dog, which had bit him on the arm, while police officers tackled the man. He then began to fight the officers as they attempted to arrest him, Sawyer said.
Officers were able to force the man’s hands behind his back and take him into custody. He told officers that he had recently ingested several narcotics, Sawyer reported.
The arresting officers transported the man to a local hospital to treat the dog bite and to assess his health after ingesting the narcotics. Doctors at the hospital found an ounce of heroin inside the man’s rectum during their evaluation, Sawyer said.
“That amount of heroin could have killed him,” Sawyer stated.
When arrested, the man was found with a large quanity of illegal drugs in his possession including 35-40 grams of heroin, three grams of meth, six grams of cocaine, two fentanyl pills, 22 oxycodone pills, 40 Xanax pills and an assortment of other pills. Some of the drugs were found on the man while others were found when police searched his car.
The man was treated and taken to the Boulder County Jail, which accepted four of his seven outstanding warrants consisting of possession of a weapon after a previous offense, 1st-degree criminal trespassing, domestic violation and violation of a protection order, domestic violence 3rd-degree assault and criminal assault and obstruction of phone services.
After the incident on Wednesday, the man now faces charges of violation of a protection order, felony and misdemeanor charges for violating bail bond conditions, possession with intent to distribute, obstruction by running from the police, criminal possession of stolen credit cards and 2nd-degree criminal trespassing and criminal mischief.
