Alleged Shore Drunk Arrested After Attacking Officer

Update can be found here. A few changes or updates are in italics.

An allegedly drunk man on a Belmont Shore residential street was being arrested Sunday night when he struggled with a Long Beach police officer, knocked his gun to the street and reached for it, an eyewitness told Patch.

"A cop was just trying to make a regular arrest of someone who was intoxicated in the street, and the guy got the upper hand, and had him [the officer] in a chokehold, and his gun was on the floor," said James Slesser, who looked out his front door onto the scene, meaning the asphalt of First Street near Bennett.

"Luckily, the other police pulled up just in time 'cuz that cop would've been dead," said Slesser.

The officer suffered injuries but did not require hospitalization, a Long Beach Fire Department employee said at the scene. The suspect was transported to a hospital, he said.

It appeared the incident occurred at about 10:30 p.m.in what is about the 4200 block of East First Street.

When Patch arrived, officers were calling for a camera and lab unit, presumeably evidence gathering units. It also sounded by our Iphone video as if someone was moaning but it was not clear if it was the suspect or the officer.

Witness Slesser lives in view of the incident that occurred on First Street at Roswell, and Patch introduced him to Sgt. Joe Klein at the scene.

The witness said he could see out his screen door as the officer spoke to the visibly inebriated man.

He said a second police car pulled up and freed the officer, and handcuffed the suspect. A Patch staffer was returning home and followed a police car from Naples westerly, from Second Street, left onto Bayshore, then right on First Street, to near where it ends.

Two or three young men were standing on the corner, a block East, and said the incident could have ended with someone shot, and credited officers with restraint. Those men heard it but did not see it.

"I wouldn't have been that controlled," said one. "Not after a drunk guy jumps on me."

More as we get it. (Patch has video but please understand we shot it on the fly, and the Iphone video has time limits, so there will be segments.)