A man is facing assault charges after he threatened to fight police officers when they showed up at his front door.
On Dec. 23 around 1 pm, Gallup Police Officer Darius Johnson was dispatched to 303 Mollica Dr. B. When he arrived at the scene, he found Officer Gabrian Lee speaking with a woman.
The woman said she had called the police department to have someone come check on a man named Jacob Antone.
Lee spoke to Antone, 33, when he answered the residence’s door.
According to Johnson’s report, Antone’s face was very bloody. Lee asked him what happened, but Antone refused to tell him, saying nothing happened.
When the officers asked Antone if anyone else was in the house with him, he reportedly became irate, saying that the officers had no right to check on him and that they had to have a warrant. He threatened to slam the door in their faces.
Johnson explained that they were looking into a case of possible domestic violence, and that they needed to check on him. Antone became angrier and angrier, and refused to answer any of the officer’s questions.
At one point Antone said he was going to leave. He started to walk away, and then he approached Johnson. In his report Johnson said he thought the man was going to attack him.
Antone told Johnson to take off his badge so he could fight him, to which Johnson responded by telling him that he needed to stop, and that he could just leave if he wanted to. Antone repeated himself, threatening to fight Johnson and getting up in his face.
The situation escalated to the point that Johnson had to hold up his hands between Antone’s face and his own and back up. He told Antone not to stand so close because he was spitting blood onto his face.
After seeing what was happening to his fellow officer, Lee stepped in and told Antone to stop. This made Antone turn toward Lee and challenge him to a fight as well.
Both the officers warned Antone that he was threatening police officers and that he needed to stop. When he wouldn’t stop the officers told him to turn around so that they could place handcuffs on him, but that’s when Antone began resisting and pulling away from the officers.
He started to walk away, and after the officers told him to stop, they sat him down on the couch and started putting handcuffs on him.
Antone kept trying to pull away, but they were finally able to handcuff him.
The officers tried to place Antone in Lee’s patrol car, but he continued to resist, and they had to tell him to get into the car more than 10 times.
When the officers were finally able to get him into the vehicle Antone lashed out by kicking Johnson in his right thigh. At that point Johnson pulled him out of Lee’s patrol car and placed him in his own.
Once he was in Johnson’s vehicle Antone continued to cuss and argue. He even called Johnson “a f*****.”
As Johnson drove Antone to the McKinley County Adult Detention Center Antone threatened his wife and children, saying he would find out where Johnson lived.
Antone was charged with two counts of assault upon a peace officer, one count of resisting arrest, and another for battery upon a police officer. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 10.
Staff Reports
