In a bizarre incident Friday morning, a Commerce Police officer used his pepper spray to subdue a man who attacked him as the officer investigated a report of a man cutting himself with a sword.
Officer Charles Carroll responded to the Ila Road mobile home park and as he walked up to the door a 31-year-old white female came out of the door with a 5-year-old girl beside her. The officer advised the woman to get the child out of the residence.
As the officer was inquiring about the location of the sword, Aaron Scott Henry, 34, of 773 Ila Road, Lot 11, "jumped into the door and screamed at me," Carroll wrote in the report of the incident, "and then began to punch me."
The officer made sure that the woman and the child got outside, the report indicated, and then took on Henry. The two did battle, with the officer losing his balance and falling on one occasion, and Henry landing "two or three" punches to the officer's face before the officer shoved Henry out the front door, grabbed Henry by the throat, threw him against the door and administered a long burst of pepper spray to Henry's face.
"I then let go of Henry and he continued to punch at me a couple of times and then started to scream," the officer wrote.
Seeing that Henry was incapacitated, the officer made sure the woman and child were safe, noting that they were "visibly shaken" but not physically harmed.
Two other officers arrived, who eventually were able to handcuff Henry in spite of his resistance, the report said.
An EMS unit arrived and treated Henry for the pepper spray. The officer found the sword behind a chair in the living room.
The extent of Henry's apparently self-inflicted wounds was not clear. The incident report said he would be charged with felony obstruction of an officer, cruelty to children, possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime and misdemeanor obstruction of an officer.
Henry was transported to Athens Regional Medical Center for a mental evaluation, according to police chief John Gaissert.
