Ranger David Anderson was flagged down by a citizen on the evening of July 19th and advised of a disturbance in progress about 40 yards from the ranger station. Anderson notified city police and monitored the situation while awaiting their response. He saw a man assault a woman by throwing a cup at her, then physically striking her. Believing the woman to be in danger of imminent bodily harm, he went to her assistance. The man, seeing him approaching, reached into a vehicle and retrieved an object that he then stuck in his waistband. He would not obey commands to remain still, made repeated movements toward his waistband, then turned to flee. Anderson brought out his taser, which suffered a cartridge malfunction when it was fired. As the man fled from the area, Anderson saw that the item he’d secreted in his waistband was a gun, probably a semi-automatic. He remained on scene with the woman, then searched the immediate area at the request of the arriving officer. A few minutes later, Anderson saw the man walking about two blocks from the scene and took him into custody without incident with the assistance of ranger Luke Johnson. The man, who’d discarded the gun, was booked into jail on various charges and is currently on active parole supervision.
