The Cheyenne Police Department says a man living under a bridge in a city park armed himself with a 5-foot stick, clubbed a police K-9, and took multiple swings at four officers in waist-deep water.
The bizarre showdown unfolded Friday near Martin Luther King Jr. Park, where officers were dispatched after getting reports of a man believed to be experiencing some sort of “psychosis."
Police say city compliance workers were trying to clean beneath the bridge, but the man refused to leave the area.
He identified himself as Casey Donavin Ragnarok Lothrar Ott, wrote Cheyenne Police Officer Noah Rodgers in a probable cause affidavit.
Officials later identified him as just Casey Ott.
He faces a list of criminal charges, including causing bodily injury to a peace officer, injuring or killing a police animal, interference with a peace officer, criminal trespass and possession of 3 grams or less of a controlled substance.
'I'll Kill it'
Rodgers wrote that Ott accused police of invading his privacy and insisted he was living on “free land.”
As officers approached, Ott allegedly gripped the large stick like a baseball bat.
“Ott wasn’t making sense,” Rodgers wrote. He “was refusing to leave from under the bridge, and refused to drop the large stick.”
Ott claimed he had been living beneath the bridge since before the Civil War, said Rodgers, adding that police ordered him repeatedly to drop the stick.
“I will not,” Ott replied, according to the affidavit.
When officers warned him they could deploy a police K-9, Ott allegedly said that if they did, “I’ll kill it.”
Sword Fight By The Creek
According to court documents, Ott then threw the stick into the air, caught it in his right hand and shifted into what Rodgers described as a “bladed stance,” holding the stick “like a sword.”
At that point, the police fired a nonlethal 40 mm foam baton into Ott’s hip, but he did not go down without a fight. Instead, he allegedly grabbed his backpack and held it “like a shield.”
A second foam baton round struck Ott in the arm before officers released the K-9.
Police say once the dog got within reach, Ott punched the K-9 and hit it with the stick sword.
Officers rushed in and Ott allegedly swung at them too, though he missed, the affidavit says.
He Dropped A Meth Pipe
The affidavit says that Ott ran into waist-deep water, dove in and continued fighting officers while swinging the stick. At one point during the struggle, Rodgers said he grabbed the stick and threw it upstream.
“It took four officers and multiple pain compliance strikes to gain control of Ott,” he later wrote.
Police eventually handcuffed Ott and took him into custody.
During the fight, officers say Ott dropped a glass meth pipe containing residue. Ott told officers the meth “heals” him.
Sir Donavin Ragnarok Lothrar Ott remains in custody at the Laramie County Detention Center. A judge set his bond at $25,000 cash only.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 1.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
