CRIME

Woman jailed after she throws iced coffee on Topeka police officer

Phil Anderson
panderson@cjonline.com
A woman who authorities said threw a cup of iced coffee on a Topeka police officer was taken into custody around 8 a.m. Friday at 8th and S. Kansas Avenue. The woman was to be booked into jail in connection with battery on a law enforcement officer. No injuries were reported. [Phil Anderson/The Capital-Journal]

A woman found herself behind bars after she threw a cup of iced coffee on a Topeka police officer who was responding to a complaint call Friday morning in the city's downtown district, authorities said.

No injuries were reported in the incident, which occurred around 8 a.m. near 8th and S. Kansas Avenue.

Topeka police Lt. Joe Perry said at the scene that an officer was following up on a call in which a citizen complained the woman was approaching people in an inappropriate fashion.

As the officer spoke with the woman, Perry said, she threw a cup of iced coffee on him.

The woman then was taken into custody and was placed in handcuffs. She could be seen lying on the street behind a parked police car in the southbound lane of S. Kansas Avenue, just south of 8th Avenue.

The officer requested other units to respond and several police cars soon arrived on the scene.

Additional units from the Topeka Fire Department and American Medical Response ambulance also responded.

Paramedics spoke with the woman as she was lying on the ground, but she refused treatment at the scene. Police then attempted to have her sit up so they could place her in the back of a patrol car. However, Perry said, the woman refused to sit up and officers had to lift her and "feed" her into the back of the patrol car.

The woman then was to be taken to the Shawnee County Jail, where she was to be booked in connection with battery on a law enforcement officer. Perry said police would be working with other agencies to attempt to assist the woman.

Perry said police have had several encounters with the woman in recent weeks in the 800 and 900 blocks of S. Kansas Avenue as they have responded to complaints from citizens.

While the incident was being addressed on Friday morning, a couple of large school buses transporting students went past the scene in the northbound lane of S. Kansas Avenue.

Additional details weren't immediately available.