Petaluma man allegedly attacked stranger for no reason, fought with responding officers
A Petaluma man has been arrested after allegedly attacking and trying to stab another man for no apparent reason.
Just after 6 AM on Tuesday, September 8, local police were dispatched to E. Washington Street to investigate reports of two men fighting.
Officers located the victim near the intersection of E. Washington and Ellis Street and learned that the suspect — later identified as 19-year-old Nathaniel Phillips — had confronted him and started to fight him for seemingly no reason.
Police also say that, at some point, Phillips pulled out a sharp object and tried to stab the victim before ultimately running away with some of his belongings as officers began to arrive.
A second officer intercepted him at the gates of the nearby fairgrounds and so began the process of taking him into custody, which involved Phillips reportedly kicking the windows of the patrol car, slamming his head against the partition, and spitting at officers.
Eventually, officers removed him from the car and put him in a WRAP device – a maximum-restraint device to prevent him from harming himself or anyone else. Nonetheless, he still managed to headbutt an officer as they put him back in the car. The officer was not injured.
Phillips has since been booked at the Sonoma County Jail.
