Police called for masked man with knife
It was one of those strange calls police get from time to time.
A neighbor about 8:30 a.m. today reported a man with a knife wearing a Captain America mask on the porch of a home on Elm Street in Butler.
It turned out, however, that the 39-year-old Penn Township man was visiting a friend there and he posed no danger. The man was only throwing a hunting knife into the wood floor.
But the man, who did not want to give his name, told the Butler Eagle he was upset that police briefly put him in handcuffs.
“They came up and said, 'Let me see your hands,'” he said. “I'm looking around, like, 'What are you doing?' It was weird.”
The cuffs were used in keeping with department practice, police said, for officers' safety. Police also did a pat-down search of the man to make sure he had no other weapons.
Police said the man admitted to officers that he was wearing the mask. He told the Eagle he was not.
The handcuffs were eventually removed and police left, but the man was still angry.
“They violated my rights,” he said. “They treated me like a piece of (expletive).”
But police Lt. Chad Rensel said the matter was handled correctly by police — and the neighbor.
“The neighbor did what they were supposed to do,” he said. “If you see something suspicious, report it to police.”
A full story will appear in the Butler Eagle.
