HASTINGS (WKZO-AM) — A Barry County teen who tried to bash a Hastings police officer with a boulder is sitting in a jail after getting hit by a Taser and hospitalized.
The officer used the weapon to subdue 19-year-old Chase Slater, who they say used a basketball-sized rock to cave in the windshields in four cruisers parked in the parking lot of the Hastings Police Department.
They say it happened before 10 p.m. Wednesday after the man approached the officer with the boulder, demanding to be shot and refusing commands to lie on the ground. They believe Slater was attempting suicide by cop.
He has been formally charged with assaulting a police officer and four counts of the malicious destruction of property. Slater was briefly hospitalized and evaluated before he was handed back over to the criminal justice system.
– John McNeill