*When a good Samaritan saw a Houston man walking naked down the street on June 6, he offered him a towel to cover himself. Instead, the man asked the stranger for his watch. Can you believe that, in an effort to calm the obviously sick (or high) man down, this kind stranger gave it to him?
Thing is, if he valued the watch, this obviously wasn’t a good move because the naked man ran away with it. But he didn’t get far. He ended up at the METRO Fannin South Transit Center where another man, Ben Marquina, was exiting the train.
Marquina saw the man and started recording from his cellphone. And after you see what really went down you might agree it’s a good thing he did.
The naked man was identified as 49-year-old Keith Dean. He had been carrying a stolen pesticide sprayer (police would later learn he had stolen it from a METRO grounds crew member earlier that morning) and after police were called and showed up to detain him, he attacked them, sprayed pesticides on them, and even slapped one of them.
It’s all caught on camera!
Marquina’s remarkable video, along with his remarks about the incident, shows that being tasered may have been the only option for this out of control man.
“Yeah the cop, he showed a lot of restraint after getting punched like that,” Marquina told ABC13 Live at 5 reporter Miya Shay.
The commuters kept it moving while the officers spoke calmly with Dean; who after being tasered twice (scroll down for video), had fallen to the ground after his attempt to attack the officer a second time failed.
The officers are seen on video talking calmly to Dean, who is now more restrained and willing to comply.
Marquina said in hindsight he knows what ended peacefully here, with no commuters getting injured, could have turned out differently.
“It could’ve been worse. Whatever was inside that tank, it could’ve been acid, it could’ve been poison, some chemical,” he told the media.
The Houston Police Department praised the two officers — deservedly so — for their restraint on the scene in the released statement below.
“We commend these two officers for their actions in bringing a volatile situation to a safe conclusion. The male clearly struck our officer, who in turn used sound judgement in holding his composure and gaining control of the scene…thanks to assistance from his partner,” said Executive Assistant Chief Troy Finner.
Dean, who we see later in a more coherent state, wearing an orange jumpsuit in his first court appearance, has been charged with two counts of assault-bodily injury of a public servant.
“I’m asking for a court-appointed lawyer,” he says to the judge.
I say to him: Whatever drug you were on bruh, I hope it was worth it.
Here’s the video.
