A Michigan shoplifter was charged with assault over the weekend after he allegedly tried to stab a police officer with a screwdriver.
The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office reported that police were summoned to a Walmart in Sterling Heights on Sunday when Joshua Mills, 32, exited the store without paying for his items, according to WJBK. Mills purportedly fled from the officers, who then deployed a taser and apprehended him.
But when an officer began the process of arresting him, Mills sat up abruptly and aimed a screwdriver at the officer’s face, narrowly missing him.
The officers finally got him into custody after further struggling.
Mills has been charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, assaulting/resisting/obstructing police, and retail fraud.
“Such blatant disregard for law enforcement is intolerable. When officers are conducting a lawful arrest and encounter violence, it challenges the core of public safety,” stated Prosecutor Pete Lucido. “The defendant’s alleged choice to escalate a routine misdemeanor arrest into a potentially deadly confrontation is unacceptable, and our office is committed to prosecuting this case to the fullest extent of the law.”
According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, he is already on probation for domestic violence and resisting police.
This time, Mills was given a $500,000 bond and ordered back to court for a probable cause conference on October 20.
