By Krista Duhon
news@joplinglobe.com
MIAMI, Okla., —- Maybe this weekend will be different. Maybe not.
Last weekend, two unrelated emergency calls left local law enforcement officers investigating a couple of strange cases. The first: a man accused of assaulting police with a horse. The second: a man accused of assaulting several vehicles with a weed eater.
“Nothing surprises us anymore,” Miami police Chief Gary Anderson said. “If it wasn’t a horse or a weed eater, it might be a shovel … whatever they can get their hands on. We don’t really give much thought to it anymore.”
The first incident took place just before 8 p.m. Sunday in Ottawa County when David Jerome Wilson, 39, of Wyandotte, allegedly tried to knock sheriff deputies over with his horse in an attempt to elude the officers, according to a probable-cause affidavit signed earlier this week by District Judge Robert Haney.
Deputy Christopher L. Hardison said deputies and a member of the Eastern Shawnee Tribal Police responded to 68500 E. 128 Road, where the complainant said she and Wilson had been in a altercation. She alleged that Wilson had hit her several times in the face and had been trying to cause his horse to walk on her.
“At that point, I saw David coming down the road riding a horse with a beer in his hand,” Hardison wrote in the affidavit. “I asked David to get off the horse and talk to me several times. David refused and was trying to lead the horse away, telling us ‘no.’ ”
A deputy reached out and grabbed Wilson by the arm, according to Hardison, and that is when Wilson allegedly attempted to force the deputies to the ground — by way of horse.
When Wilson later dismounted, deputies attempted to place him under arrest.
Wilson allegedly became combative and law enforcement officials had to wrestle him to the ground as he argued with the complainant as to whether or not he had hit her, according to Hardison’s written statements.
The probable-cause affidavit alleges that Wilson refused to walk to the patrol car, refused to get in the patrol car and, even after he was inside the patrol car, spat on the officers, kicked the officers and attempted to kick out the glass protection panel.
Wilson was booked into the county jail with felony charges of assault and battery upon a police officer, placing bodily fluid on a police officer, domestic abuse and a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. His bond was set at $6,300.
About two hours after Wilson’s encounter with county and tribal law enforcement officers Sunday, Miami police faced their own bizarre case.
Anthony Boyd Dixon, 39, allegedly used a Troy Bilt weed trimmer to bludgeon three vehicles in the parking lot of a local bar. Police reports indicate that Dixon damaged a 2003 PT Cruiser, a 2007 Toyota Camry and a third vehicle, a truck, that left the scene before police officers arrived.
A witness called police to report a man who battered vehicles in the parking lot of Jose’s Bar before leaving on foot, according to a Miami police report. Officials said the caller described a man identical to Dixon.
Police later found Dixon lying in an alley in the 100 block alley between G and H streets southwest in Miami.
Officers said Dixon showed apparent signs of intoxication and was “crying and screaming” when officers found him. Dixon reportedly said he didn’t mean to damage the cars, but he was mad.
When officers asked how much he’d had to drink, Dixon reportedly replied “a bunch.”
Dixon was arrested and booked into the Ottawa County Jail where, upon processing, jail officials allegedly found marijuana and related paraphernalia in a front pocket of his bluejeans.
Dixon now faces a felony charge of malicious injury to property and three misdemeanor charges related to the possession of a controlled dangerous substance.
The weekend events came a week before the moon would fully shine over Ottawa County — a time when Anderson said the most bizarre incidents usually occur.
“We usually say that the unusual things seem to happen when there is a full moon,” Anderson said. “And we always say around here that things come in threes. But really, you just never know.”
