A police officer in Texarkana was allegedly assaulted with a machete during a suspect’s arrest on Saturday.
Kevin Neal, 32, faces several charges — including aggravated assault — after allegedly bringing a whip and machete into a fast food restaurant and then refusing to comply with police officers’ commands.
“We had a very scary situation today,” read a social media post from the Texarkana Texas Police Department.
Neal first came to the attention of Texarkana police when they fielded reports of a suspicious person at a McDonald’s on New Boston Road at around 10 a.m. on March 2. Responding officers caught up to Neal, who was walking down the street a few blocks away. Neal “repeatedly swung the machete around at the officers and refused to drop it,” according to police.
Despite deploying a JPX pepper gun as well as a bean bag round to get Neal to drop the machete, he allegedly continued to walk down the road swinging it.
Upon reaching the 2700 block of Texas Boulevard, the officers tackled Neal, and an officer was struck in the head while the suspect allegedly continued to resist.
“Thankfully, the officer’s injuries were very minor — although his glasses were broken. He was treated and released from the hospital,” reported the department.
Neal was booked into the Bowie County Jail on charges of evading detention, resisting arrest, and aggravated assault on a peace officer upon his release from the hospital. His bond was set at $160,000. He has a lengthy criminal background of theft and weapon offenses and more dating back to 1997.
In Dallas, there have been 4,132 reports of “crime against persons” made this year as of March 3, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. More than 80% of all these crimes involved black or Hispanic victims, of which over 60% were female.
The Dallas Police Department has been hampered in its efforts to combat these offenses — which include assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, murder, and more — due to a significant shortage of officers. The department fields just 3,000 officers, although a City analysis recommended a force of 4,000 to adequately respond to the policing needs of the city.
Moreover, Downtown Dallas routinely outpaces Fort Worth’s city center in crime rates, especially in terms of assaults, drug crimes, and motor vehicle thefts, as monthly studies from the Metroplex Civic & Business Association show. A dedicated neighborhood police unit and private security officers work in concert to patrol Fort Worth’s downtown area.
The Dallas City Council recently voted to spend much less taxpayer money on law enforcement than other high-crime jurisdictions, like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. It budgeted DPD only $654 million for the department this fiscal year.
