An officer walking patrol during the St. Patrick’s Day festival saw several firefighters running towards the Savannah River from the Abercorn ramp. The officer then saw a man who was climbing out of the water.
The officer saw that the man had bloodshot eyes with large pupils, and noticed he smelled like alcohol. He was taken into custody and charged with Swimming Prohibited in Certain Waters, a city ordinance, and public drunkenness. Before he was taken to jail, he was asked if he’d been drinking alcohol.
"Yeah," he replied. "I had a lot, obviously."
-- Shortly after the St. Patrick’s Day parade, police were called to Broughton and Bull streets because of a lookout posted on a woman who had run a barricade. An officer observed a strong odor of alcohol on the woman, who was cuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car after she became disorderly.
Another officer approached the patrol car and released the woman, who said she understood her rights and waived her right to an attorney. She asked to use a restroom, and was escorted to a nearby restaurant.
The woman said she drove from the parking garage to where she was stopped. She said she was looking for her family, but when asked about it later said she was headed back to work.
Her eyes were red and glassy, her words slurred and she was unsteady on her feet. When asked how much she’d had to drink, she replied, "I’ve only had one drink and it was a Bloody Mary."
When asked when she’d started drinking, the woman said about 10 a.m. when she first got downtown. She was asked to take some tests to determine if she was okay to drive
The woman failed an eye test, a walk-and-turn test and a one-leg stand. When asked to submit to a preliminary breath test, the woman tested positive for alcohol. She was arrested for DUI and taken to the Chatham County Detention Center.
-- Two men were arrested on March 14 after they began fighting on River Street at the Abercorn ramp. An officer on patrol in the area saw a group of people come out of a bar.
One man began yelling and using fighting words against a second man, who tried to walk away. He then turned around and pushed the first man in the chest. The first man then balled up his fist and swung at the second man. The officer ran up the ramp and tried to break up the fight before it became worse.
The second man was put in handcuffs. He and a security officer from the bar told the officer the first man was just 10 feet away, trying to hide in the crowd, and he was located and cuffed, then told he was under arrest.
The man was put into a chair at the River Street command post. When asked for his information, he replied "F--k you!" to the officer, but indicated he was in the military.
An Army captain asked the soldier for his rank and working location in an effort to have him released to the U.S. Army, but the man again responded "F--k you!" and used other profanity. The captain advised him to settle down and said he was making the situation worse.
The man then told the captain, in the presence of city police officers, "F--k you, if you point that finger at me again I will bite it off!" The captain is the man’s commanding officer.
A silver flask with alcohol in it was discovered during a search. The man reacted violently, screaming, yelling and cursing.
He was given one last chance to cooperate with police, but began to stare at an officer and make indirect threats. At that point he was informed he wouldn’t be allowed to leave with military police, but that he was going to have state charges filed against him, which included disorderly conduct, simple assault, public drunkenness, open container, affray and hindering law enforcement. He and the other man were both taken to jail.
