A man who prodded another man to commit suicide and then invited others to watch the event has been arrested and charged.

Monday, July 09, 2001

A man who prodded another man to commit suicide and then invited others to watch the event has been arrested and charged.

Chad Flim, 24, of Austin, has been charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing justice and aiding an abetting a suicide attempt. He is in the Mower County Jail, awaiting a court appearance.

According to Austin Police Department reports, the incident occurred in the 300 block of First Street SW at 11:37 p.m. Sunday.

Officers were called to a residence by the fiancee of a 29-year-old man, who threatened suicide. The woman and her 5-year-old child were alone in the house with the distraught man.

Officers blocked the street in front of the house, advised neighbors to retreat to their basement and surrounded the house to begin negotiations with the man inside.

"According to the reports, while they were attempting negotiations, a man on the porch of a house across the street and apparently drunk started yelling ‘Do it, do it’ and this obviously distracted the negotiations in progress," Austin Police Chief Paul M. Philipp said.

When Flim was ordered inside his house, he complied, but later surfaced atop the roof of his home, where he was talking loudly on a cell phone inviting friends to come to his residence and observe the police stand-off with a suicidal man.

Officers took Flim into custody and resumed negotiations with the distraught man.

The woman and her 5-year-old son managed to exit the residence leaving the man alone inside. The man asked to speak to his mother, who lived in Dodge Center, and a friend in Austin.

Through open windows in the home, the officers surrounding the house heard the racking of a shotgun.

Finally, the man exited the house and stood on the front porch with the shotgun under his chin.

Then, he took the shotgun down and stepped from the porch onto the front lawn, where he obeyed officers orders to throw the weapon aside and kneel on the ground.

He was rushed by officers as a precaution to grabbing the weapon and taken into custody.

The shotgun was found to be empty.

The man was taken to Austin Medical Center’s stress center for observation.

No shots were fired and no injuries reported.

Dangerous dogs probed

Austin residents have complained of dangerous dogs running loose and Austin Police Department officers have themselves been the targets of dangerous dogs.

At 8:40 p.m. Saturday, a father complained that a neighbor in northeast Austin allowed his Doberman pincher dog to run loose and that the dog had chased his daughter and other neighborhood children.

Officers located the dog and took it to the Austin Animal Shelter, where it will be held pending disposition.

According to police records, it was the third such dangerous dog running loose incident involving the animal.

In two other similar incidents, another dog was apprehended and placed in the shelter, while still another dog was apprehended and also placed in the shelter. The latter was the third such incident involving the designated dangerous dog to run loose, meaning the owner faces a court appearance.

In still another incident last Wednesday, an officer was called to the 1800 block of Third Street NE for a report of an animal running loose and threatening residents.

When the officer arrived, a pit bull he knew from previous incidents as approached him snarling and posturing in a threatening manner. This forced the officer to draw his weapon. The dog momentarily retreated, but then came at the officer again. This time the officer sprayed a chemical agent into the face of the dog, which returned to a gated yard.

Neighbors told police, the dog runs loose frequently. In the July 4 incident, a woman and her toddler child were sitting on a porch next door when the dog jumped a fence and came toward them.

When the owner of the animal was located, he told police neighborhood children have been tossing firecrackers at the animal and that it "would never hurt anyone," according to the police report.

Police arrest pair

Two men involved in a fight involving chunks of concrete and a metal pipe are in jail.

Ramon Garcia, 21, and Shawn Crawford, 35, were taken into custody at 3:53 a.m. Sunday at an apartment in the 400 block of Second Street NE.

According to an Austin Police Department report, police were called to the building to investigate a report of a fight in progress.

Both men were taken to Austin Medical Center for treatment of their wounds and then jailed.

They face second-degree assault charges.

Officers disperse crowd

Four Austin Police Department officers found themselves in an tense situation early Sunday morning in the downtown Plaza parking lot.

The officers found themselves surrounded by between 30 and 40 people with several fights in progress.

Additional officers from the Mower County Sheriff’s Department, Minnesota State Patrol and Adams and Grand Meadow police departments were called to assist the Austin officers in quelling disturbance.

According to Police Chief Paul M. Philipp, two arrests were made at the scene in downtown Austin, while at least 12 other participants will be charged by complaint summonses.

Officers were alerted to trouble late Saturday night, when the Alaskan Bar refused to serve individuals who could not produce valid identification.

"There was name-calling and bad feelings at the time and according to the officers’ reports, it involved a dispute," the police chief said.

Austin officers returned to the area when the bars closed early Sunday morning and discovered multiple melees in progress.

"It was a tense situation for a while," Philipp said.

The combatants initially refused the four officers’ orders to disperse. Then, officers used chemical agent sprays. However, when the effects of the sprays wore off, the combatants again menaced officers, who again ordered them to disperse. When they refused, the assistance was requested and a stand-off ensued between the crowd and the officers until reinforcements arrived and the situation was brought under control.

No one was injured, according to the police reports.

Burglary investigated

Austin Police Department officers are investigating a burglary at Greenman Heating.

According to a police report, Cheryl Greenman discovered the burglary upon reporting to work Saturday.

A quantity of coins is missing. However, it was unknown this morning whether any items were taken from the business at 1001 Fourth St. SE.

Tools were found near a safe in an office, which lead investigators to believe the burglars had attempted to crack the safe.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com.