Dayton police use Taser on man threatening to walk into I-75 traffic

Traffic on I-75 southbound in Dayton. TY GREENLEES / STAFF

Traffic on I-75 southbound in Dayton. TY GREENLEES / STAFF

Dayton police used a Taser to prevent a man from walking into Interstate 75 southbound traffic near downtown Wednesday afternoon, according to a police incident report.

The report says officers were dispatched at 3:26 p.m. to the area of the Third Street/Salem Avenue exit on reports of a man in a neon shirt pacing on the side of the highway, then walking into lanes of traffic.

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The incident report says that when an officer approached the 31-year-old man on the right-hand edge of the exit ramp, he began rambling about wanting water, wanting to go home and wanting his grandmother contacted, with other mumbled comments indecipherable.

After a second officer arrived, the man said he was “doing work for God,” and asked if the officers were going to hurt him, according to the report. The man declined a ride from the officers and said he would walk to the bottom of the ramp.

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The man grabbed his duffel bag and plastic bucket of masonry tools from the side of the road, and started walking down the ramp, according to the report. But then he abruptly turned and began walking toward the busy highway lanes. When an officer blocked his path, the man began swinging his arms “so that he could not be touched,” according to the report.

When the man got around the officers and said he was going to walk back north (on the highway), one of the officers commanded him to stop three times, and warned that he would use his stun gun — for the the safety of the man and highway drivers — according to the report. When the man refused, the officer fired the Taser, striking the man in the back. He fell to the ground, was handcuffed and was taken to a hospital.

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