MYRTLE BEACH — Myrtle Beach police charged a man with assaulting officers, disrupting the peace and public intoxication after officers answered a call about a man banging on doors and scaring children at an apartment complex, according to police reports.
Rolland Curtis Thomas, 40, of Myrtle Beach was charged with three counts of assault on a police officer, third-degree assault and battery, public intoxication, trespassing and breach of peace, according to jail records.
Thomas was released from J. Reuben Long Detention Center at 3:24 p.m. Wednesday on $4,587 bail.
Police said the incident happened about 7 p.m. Sunday in the 200 block of Chester Street. Someone reported that a man was out of control and banging on doors in the common areas between apartments, according to the report. As a bicycle officer responded, he reported he heard the man yelling and cursing more than a block away from the building.
Police found Thomas on a third floor drinking from a 1.75 liter bottle of bourbon, and he was shirtless and covered in blood, according to the report. Officers noted that Thomas was bleeding from his mouth and right eye, which was blackened and swollen. He also had possibly bitten a hole in his tongue.
Officers determined that Thomas’ injuries were likely caused by his high level of intoxication because no other injured person was found in the area, according to the report. A witness told police that Thomas “just began going crazy. Prior to this he was uninjured.”
Officers tried to get Thomas to voluntarily agree to be taken to the hospital and they did not plan to arrest him, according to the report. Thomas initially agreed and walked to a waiting ambulance, but once there he began screaming at police.
Thomas began charging at officers and police used a Taser on him before he was taken to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center and later arrested, according to the report.
Officers learned that Thomas tried to force his way into a 43-year-old man’s apartment where the man’s wife and four children were, according to the report. The victim told police that Thomas punched him in the face while he held the door to keep Thomas outside.
The victim had some minor marks on his face.
Contact TONYA ROOT at 444-1723.
