By Joe Johnson
An Oglethorpe County man allegedly tried to remove guns from the holsters of two officers Monday night as they tried to arrest him for allegedly stalking a woman at the Parkview Homes public housing complex, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
An officer was on patrol downtown at about 7:30 p.m. when he saw 27-year-old Terrell Meadows of Lexington talking on a cellphone while driving a car that was missing as front bumper, the report stated.
The officer followed Meadow’s car in traffic when it suddenly turned onto South Pope Street, and after searching for the car on side streets the officer saw it pull out of a parking space in front of an apartment where he allegedly assaulted a woman six days earlier by strangling her, according to the report.
A condition of Meadow’s bond from the earlier arrest was that he have no contact and stay away from the victim.
After conducting a traffic stop in a Baxter Street parking lot, an officer wrote citations charging Meadows with distracted driving and operating an unsafe vehicle, the police report stated.
Meanwhile another officer verified that Meadows had violated his bond by driving to the assault victim’s apartment, according to the report, and when the officers tried to arrest the suspect he violently resisted and tried to flee, according to the report.
An officer incapacitated Meadows by shooting him in the back with electrified probes from a Taser gun. The report stated that Meadows got up into a sitting position and made a failed attempt to remove a handgun from an officer’s holster, according to police.
As he continued to resist, Meadows was shot a second time with a Taser gun, but again he managed to get up and tried to take another officer’s gun, according to the report.
An officer shocked Meadows a third time, at which time officer were able to place the suspect in handcuffs.
After Meadows was evaluated at the scene by National EMS personnel, police said they transported him to the Clarke County Jail where he was booked in on three counts each of felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer and simple battery on an officer, two counts of attempted removal of an officer’s weapon and one count of aggravated stalking, according to the police report.