Racine police say a 33-year-old man is facing a felony battery charge after an officer’s hand was broken trying to subdue the man after a short pursuit.
Nathaniel Griswold, of Redwood City, CA, was charged Friday in Racine County Circuit Court with a single felony count of battery to a peace officer, two misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, and one misdemeanor charge each of obstruction and resisting arrest. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison and/or up to $32,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint, police were called at 5:44 p.m. Thursday to Reservoir Park in the 4400 block of Maryland Avenue for a report of a man running in the street making suicidal statement and using racial slurs. When officers arrived, they located the man – later identified as Griswold – and ordered him to stop, but he took off instead.
Police say they ran after Griswold through the park and deployed their taser, but it didn’t work and the defendant kept running. He was approaching an area where young children were practicing football, and their coach was positioned in Griswold’s path holding a practice blocking pad. When Griswold got close to the man, he pushed the pad into the defendant, and Griswold fell to the ground.
Griswold struggled against officers, and they believed Griswold may be armed they delivered hand strikes that had no impact on the defendant but left one officer with a broken hand. A taser was deployed again and with the strength of multiple officers, they were finally able to take Griswold into custody, the complaint reads. Police also bound his legs to prevent Griswold from kicking anyone.
Police say one witness said they’d seen Griswold near the practice area and asked him to leave. When he did, though, Griswold started yelling about dying in the middle of the street and killing black people. A woman driving west on Maryland told officers that Griswold was in the street and tried to grab her locked car door, yelling, “Open the (expletive) door, (expletive).”
Griswold is being held in the Racine County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond and was ordered to provide a DNA sample. He will next be in court Sept. 16 for his preliminary hearing.