Police released a report on Tuesday of an incident that took place over the weekend on Saunders Settlement and Shawnee roads in which a man who struck an ambulance employee was tased three times, then repeatedly yelled “Obama wants a fight.”
Lewiston Police and Niagara County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call that Marlo Jackson struck an Appleton woman who works for Rural Metro in the back of an ambulance.
Jackson — who was listed on the police report as a 6-foot-4, 385-pound black male — was alleged to throw the ambulance employee across the bench seat after becoming aggravated while en route to a mental health evaluation.
Police tried to calm Jackson down, although he was using just one-word answers to questions. That’s when police told Jackson they were going to escort him out of the ambulance by handcuffing him, at least until the situation was sorted out.
Although he was originally calm, when police went to put a second set of handcuffs on Jackson due to his size, the man pulled his secured hand away from the officer, and began pushing him into the road in the line of traffic.
That’s when another officer used the taser on Jackson, hitting him in the chest and left hand.
Jackson dropped to the ground on the shoulder of Saunders Settlement Road, then rolled three feet down into a ditch.
Although police repeatedly asked him to remove his arms from under his body, Jackson wouldn’t do so, and that’s when he was hit with the taser again in drive stun mode, this time with minimal effect.
When he finally calmed down after being stunned a third time, police helped Jackson to a sitting position, and asked if he could breath. That’s when he responded “Obama wants a fight” for approximately 10 minutes.
Originally, he wouldn’t stand up, and the four officers now on the scene couldn’t lift him, but he finally calmed and was eventually taken by ambulance to Niagara Falls Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted to the psychiatric center.
Police then filed paperwork with the Town of Cambria Court to secure a warrant for his arrest.