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As police chased a suspect who’d been involved in a downtown fight Friday afternoon, it became something of a spectator sport.
“It sounds like they were pointing the direction he ran …
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As police chased a suspect who’d been involved in a downtown fight Friday afternoon, it became something of a spectator sport.
“It sounds like they were pointing the direction he ran and yelling, ‘Go PD,’ and that kind of stuff,” said Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt. In a Monday Facebook post, the department offered its appreciation to those who helped out and offered encouragement.
Also on Monday, the man caught by the officers, 35-year-old Lon F. Middleton, pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of unlawful contact and interference with a peace officer.
Middleton is alleged to have fought with a bartender at the Red Zone Sports Bar and Grill around 3:30 p.m.
The bartender said he’d been speaking with a coworker when “some guy came up to him and started to ‘talk [crap]’ to him for no reason,” Powell Police Officer Paul Sapp recounted in an affidavit. After telling Middleton to back away and then trying to physically push him away, the bartender said he punched Middleton. According to the bartender’s account, Middleton took him to the ground and the bartender cut his head on a brass rail and wall.
While the man was giving his statement, Middleton walked back into the Red Zone — and ran away upon seeing police, Sapp wrote.
Sapp and fellow Officer Cody Bradley gave chase, heading south on Bent Street, east on First Street and then north up the alley; Sapp caught up with the suspect as he hid behind the Rest Awhile Cafe.
Middleton, who Sapp described as having “the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage,” gave a different version of the story. Middleton told police that a guy he didn’t know had walked up and punched him for no reason; he was taken to the hospital after complaining of pain.
However, another worker at the Red Zone — who happens to be a relative of Middleton’s — reportedly backed up the bartender’s account. The woman said “she did not know why Lon [Middleton] did that,” Sapp wrote, and said that “this is not the first time that he [Middelton] has done something like this.”
One of Middleton’s family members posted a $500 bond on his behalf, allowing him to be released pending a trial in Park County Circuit Court. At the time of his arrest, Middleton also had an outstanding warrant from Greybull’s Municipal Court that was apparently tied to a different bar fight, Sapp wrote.
