According to this Dakota County Criminal Complaint, a man narrowly avoided hitting a child on a bike and was immediately approached by a man supposedly speaking Russian. Assuming the worst he exited his vehicle and confronted the man with a knife and was later arrested and charged with felony second degree assault and terroristic threats.
From the criminal complaint:
An officer arrived on scene and spoke to the victim, who reported that a 1980 to 1985, blue Chevrolet four door vehicle, had pulled into the parking lot where his five year old son was riding his bike. The victim heard the sound of tires as the driver of the vehicle slammed on his brakes or spun his tires. The victim immediately thought that his son had been hit by the vehicle because he could no longer see him. The victim ran to the aid of his son, attempting to locate him, and said that as he was running he observed that his son was ok. The victim stated that as he was still running, approximately twenty to thirty feet from the suspect vehicle, he observed the driver get out of the vehicle. The victim observed the driver walk to the front of the vehicle and wave a knife at the victim in a threatening manner.
[...]
At this time a male later identified as Malik Alan Butler-Martinez, date of birth: 5/10/1988, exited the residence and told the officer he wanted to talk to him. Butler-Martinez stated that he was at the park for approximately thirty seconds and his vehicle was parked. He said he observed a male running in his direction, yelling something in Russian. Butler-Martinez stated he exited his vehicle and pulled out his “pocket knife”, which was later discovered at Butler-Martinez’s residence. The knife is a hunting knife with a four to five inch blade on it. Butler-Martinez stated that he held the knife up in his hand, “showing that [he] had a knife on [him].” Butler-Martinez stated he never took the knife out of its case. Butler-Martinez admitted that he stomped on his brakes in the park to avoid hitting a kid on a bike.
So you are driving through a park and narrowly hit a child on a bike. You stop the car and with your heart in your throat you see, out of the corner of your eye, a man rushing towards you and the child yelling something in a language you cannot understand. What would you do? Do you think it’s right that someone may be charged with two felonies even if, according to the complaint, other witnesses did not hear/understand threats being made when someone rushed towards you? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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May 31st, 2011 at 7:40 am
Weak. I think the man wielding the knife could argue self defense. It is an affirmative defense, so he needs to present facts necessary to establish the minimum elements. The elements of self-defense are: “(1) an absence of aggression or provocation; (2) an actual and honest belief that imminent death or great bodily harm would result; (3) a reasonable basis existed for this belief; and (4) an absence of reasonable means to retreat or otherwise avoid the physical conflict.
As applied here, from what we know: 1) The person with the knife did not do anything to provoke an attack. He may have been careless with his driving (then again, the kid riding in the parking lot may have come from between cars), but we don’t know. In any event, there is no indication he came out looking to pick a fight by being the initial aggressor. 2) A person was charging towards him yelling in a language he did not understand. He probably had an actual belief that the perosn meant to cause him harm. 3) Is there a reasonable basis for this belief? The arguement gets weaker here. However, given that he didn’t advance on the other person, but just held his ground in front of the car (indicates defensive posture to me), I would probably make the determination, without something more, that the belief was reasonable given the level of response. 4) If this defense fails, I think it will be because he did not stay in his car, or immediately retreat to his car, or just try to get the car between him and the person running towards him. Instead, he grabbed the knife and ran to the front of his car. 20 to 30 feet is not alot when a person is running at you though, maybe there wasn’t time to retreat. He did not engage the other person, nor did he advance on him.
May 31st, 2011 at 8:51 am
My kids are grown up now but i remember when drivers in our neighborhood would drive really fast on our streets (teenaged and early 20 males) and i wanted to throw a brick through their windshields. (parental rage is understandable) I tend to sympathize with the father here, notwithstanding allowing his kid to ride his bike in the parking lot. however Sui Generis self defense argument has legs.
Give the guy who pulled the knife a warning. Give the father a discussion on the dangers of kids riding bikes in parking lots. No charges filed.
May 31st, 2011 at 10:28 am
It sounds to me like both parties came from very different environments than Rosemount. I agree a warning to each is in order. Both parties over-reacted, both with some reasonable fear, probably from past experiences in their former country.
May 31st, 2011 at 2:20 pm
perfect example of a time where you simply refuse to discuss anything without the presence of your attorney. The complaint indicates the accused talked way too much.
That said, you simply can not threaten people. Brandish a weapon during the threat, bam, you just nailed a felony bub.
July 25th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
A commenter using a fake e-mail address noted that this is the same guy who helped do all the damage at Afton: http://www.twincities.com/ci_18458125