Man Punches Officer In Face; Resists Arrest After Being Tasered Twice, Pepper Sprayed Thrice

ST. THOMAS — A man by the name of Everette Parker, who resides in Bonne Resolution, gave police officers here a difficult time while attempting to restrain him after he disobeyed a command to stop jaywalking into oncoming traffic on Main Street and Raadets Gade, according to Sakeeda Freeman, the VIPD’s media specialist.

Citing a police report, Ms. Freeman said after being made aware of the incident by the 911 emergency call center, responding officers arrived at the location and observed Parker, 46, walking in and out of the oncoming traffic. He was advised to leave the area but refused. Instead, Parker began hurling a series of expletives at the officers while behaving in an erratic manner, according to the release. The officers continued to advise the man to leave the area, but after he continued to disregard the orders that were being issued, officers announced to Parker that he was under arrest.

However, as one of the two officers at the suddenly dangerous scene attempted to handcuff Parker, he pulled away and punched the arresting officer in the face with a closed fist.

The assaulted officer, stunned, used a taser to incapacitate Parker, who fell to the ground and was told not to resist. But seconds later, Parker pulled the prongs of the device out of his chest, stood up and continued his erratic behavior, according to Ms. Freeman. As the officer continued issuing the command to stop resisting, a secondary taser was deployed and Parker fell to the ground once more. Parker again regained footing but this time, instead of attacking the officer, he began making his way through traffic, refusing to comply with the verbal commands of the officers to cease and desist.

Parker was then sprayed with a burst of OC gas (pepper spray), but it proved ineffective. He was hit with two additional shots of pepper spray and was eventually restrained, handcuffed, placed under arrest and transported to the Roy Lester Schneider Regional Medical Center.

Once having been decontaminated and treated for abrasions sustained from the taser prongs, Parker was taken to the Richard N. Callwood Command where he was formally charged with disobeying a lawful order, aggravated assault and battery of an officer, disturbance of the peace and resisting arrest.

Unable to make bail of $3,000, he was remanded to the Bureau of Corrections pending his advise-of-rights hearing.