Sioux Falls Man Assaults Police Officer with Motorcycle

It's been my experience that events that happen outdoors during the middle of the night with motor vehicles generally don't seem to have happy endings. Case in point, an incident that took place involving a man, a motorcycle, and a police officer in downtown Sioux Falls this past Sunday morning.

KSFY TV is reporting that police arrested 31-year-old Anthony Brian Brownlee of Sioux Falls on Sunday afternoon, (July 7) after he assaulted a police officer earlier that morning with a motorcycle.

The arrest stems from an incident that started around 1:45 AM in a public parking lot next to Phillips Diner. As KSFY reports, officers were helping with traffic control in front of PAve restaurant and bar on Phillips, when Brownlee began to rev up a motorcycle in the parking lot that he was about to start to ride.

Officer Sam Clemens with the Sioux Falls Police Department told KSFY that a group of officers were in the process of walking over to speak with Brownlee when he decided it would be a good idea to drive directly at the officers on the bike. In doing so, he clipped one of the officers in the leg. That's when the hijinks ensued.

According to KSFY, Brownlee then veered the bike onto the sidewalk where pedestrians were walking, turned on 10th Street and ran a red light at 10th Street and Minnesota Avenue. He then proceeded to spin the bike around to go the wrong way down 10th Street and drove directly at officers, saying he "was going to kill them."  That's never a good idea, I might add.

Strangely enough, Brownlee was able to successfully get away, but not before police were able to get the license plate number of the motorcycle.

Authorities caught up with the owner of the bike a short time later, who informed police that he had loaned the motorcycle to Brownlee to use. They eventually located both Brownlee and the bike on Sunday afternoon and took the suspect into custody.

KSFY reports that Brownlee was arrested and charged with four counts of aggravated assault, aggravated eluding, exhibition driving, threatening a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct, driving on the sidewalk, motor vehicle noise ordinance, red light violation, driving wrong way of one-way and reckless driving. It sounds like they booked him on practically everything but the Kennedy assassination.

By the way, the officer involved in the incident did not receive any injuries as a result of being clipped by the bike.

Source: KSFY TV