He cracked a light bulb over a police officer?s head and held another police station employee hostage with a pair of scissors. Now, Rodney Bethea is going to prison.
Baltimore City District Court Judge John Hargrove Jr. sentenced Bethea to four years in prison Monday after the 21-year-old admitted to assaulting a law enforcement officer, taking a hostage and escaping from police custody.
Bethea, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty Sept. 1 to false imprisonment, assault on law enforcement and an escape charge.
Bethea?s attorney, Donald Daneman, called the sentence “fair” and said his client, who is suicidal, had a panic attack April 13 when he attacked the officer.
“My client has a long history of psychiatric problems,” Daneman said.
Police charging documents reveal the following chaotic scene of April 13 at the Northeast District police station.
Police arrested Bethea at 10:45 a.m. on April 13 on charges of marijuana possession and transported him to the Northeast District police station for an interview.
While left alone in an interview room, Bethea unsuccessfully attempted to hang himself with a string.
He then removed a halogen light bulb, causing the room to go black, and waited, perched on a table, for a police officer to enter the room.
An officer entered the room, and Bethea jumped off the table, striking the officer over the head with the light bulb, shattering it and causing multiple cuts to the officer?s head.
The officer fell to the floor, and Bethea ran out of the interview room and took a police station employee hostage with a pair of scissors.
After a two-hour standoff, the Baltimore City SWAT team forced open the door to the room where Bethea held the employee hostage and shocked Bethea with a stun gun, taking him into custody.
Daneman said his client was trying to end his own life.
“They locked him in a room by himself, and he panicked and tried to commit suicide. After he tried to kill himself and failed, he tried to do something that would make the police kill him,” Daneman said. “He never tried to hurt the civilian employee. It?s a tragic case on both ends. I feel very bad for the victim.”
