CRIME

Man disrupting traffic strikes officer

Phil Anderson
panderson@cjonline.com
A man who authorities said had been in the middle of the street causing a traffic hazard was taken into custody Tuesday morning in the 500 block of S.W. 10th Avenue after striking a Topeka police officer. [Phil Anderson/The Capital-Journal]

A man authorities said was causing a traffic hazard Tuesday morning near downtown Topeka was taken into custody after he swung at and struck a Topeka police officer.

The incident occurred about 8:35 a.m. in the 500 block of S.W. 10th Avenue, just west of S.W. Topeka Boulevard.

Offices were sent to the area after a report of a pedestrian who was in and out of traffic in the middle of the busy street.

Topeka police Officer Aaron Bulmer arrived on the scene within about a minute of the call and located the man in the street.

Bulmer said he was attempting to have the pedestrian move out of the street when the man swung at and hit him. Bulmer, who said he wasn't injured, then took the man to the north side of the intersection, where he held him for other officers from the Topeka Police Department and Capitol Police.

The pedestrian, who Bulmer said appeared to be intoxicated, was evaluated at the scene by American Medical Response ambulance personnel.

It wasn't immediately known whether the man required hospital treatment.

The man was expected to be booked into the Shawnee County Jail in connection with battery on a law enforcement officer, among other offenses.

Additional details weren't immediately available.