A man was arrested on suspicion of threatening a peace officer with a weapon after two police officers reported that he threatened them with a knife early Thursday outside the Durango Police Station.
The officers were unloading gear from their vehicles about 2:20 a.m. when Jacob Charles Hay, 24, started shouting at them and challenging them, saying things like “let’s go” and “bring it on,” said Lt. Ray Shupe, police spokesman.
When one of the officers approached him, Hay allegedly pulled out a pocket knife, he said.
The two officers held him at gunpoint while they tried to get him to drop the knife, Shupe said.
A supervisor and a corporal came out to help, and they both used a stun gun on Hay, but the attempts were ineffective because they were blocked by his leather jacket, he said.
One of the officers holding a gun holstered it and deployed a stun gun that made contact with Hay’s skin.
Hay violently resisted arrest, and there was a scuffle before he was arrested and taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center, Shupe said.
His blood-alcohol level was found to be three times the legal limit for driving.
Hay was medically cleared to be taken to jail, and he was arrested on suspicion of threatening a peace officer with a weapon and resisting arrest.
It is unknown what led Hay, a Durango resident, to threaten officers.
“I don’t think he knew any of the officers personally, and it’s still unclear exactly what his motives were,” Shupe said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
