Barefoot man grabs police stun gun, leads officers on chase

PORTLAND, Ore. - Police officers ended up in a wild struggle when a barefoot man grabbed one of their stun guns and then took off.

It all started around 12:30 a.m. Sunday in downtown Portland.

According to police, a man was involved in some kind of fight with someone else over a child and when an officer tried to break it up, things got a little messy.

"The Taser was deployed," said Commander Mike Crebs with the Portland Police Bureau. "It apparently did not have the effect we wanted it to have, for whatever reason. And the suspect was able to get the Taser out of the officer's hand."

Here's the police bureau's account of what happened:

On Sunday June 3, 2012, at approximately 12:30 a.m., police officers assigned to the Transit Police Division came across a physical custody battle in the area of Southwest 10th Avenue and Clay Street.

The officers got out to break up the fight and were immediately engaged in a physical confrontation with one of the men, later identified as 50-year-old Abderrahim Abdul Najjar of Southeast Portland.

One of the officers deployed his Taser against Najjar. One probe stuck into Najjar but the other missed and Najjar ripped the Taser away from the officer as the other officer deployed his Taser with similarly negative results. Najjar ran from the officers, barefoot, with the stolen Taser. During the violence of the struggle, one officer's radio became inoperable so as the two officers chased the Najjar on foot, one of them called 9-1-1 to provide updates.

Additional officers swarmed the area and located Najjar at Southwest 2nd Avenue and Jefferson Street, where he again fought violently with several officers before being taken into custody.

Several officers suffered minor scrapes and bruises as a result of the struggle with Najjar, who transported to an area hospital for treatment to minor injuries before being booked into jail. Najjar appeared to be under the influence of intoxicants at the time of his arrest.

Najjar was charged with Robbery in the Third Degree, Assaulting a Public Safety Officer, Resist Arrest, Escape in the Third Degree, Theft in the Second Degree, Criminal Mischief in the Second Degree, and Felon in Possession of a Restricted Weapon. Najjar also had a Parole Violation warrant on an original charge of Attempted Assault in the Second Degree.

Najjar was booked into the Multnomah County Jail.