A man who left his vehicle unoccupied in a lane for picking up school children started the incident — and it didn’t end until after a “lengthy fight” with the arresting officer not far from where it all began.
The school resource officer on duty Wednesday afternoon at Sulphur Rock Elementary School was Deputy Patrick Collins. According to the incident report, Collins was asked by school personnel to have an unoccupied truck removed from a lane used by parents and others to pick up their children. The truck was parked in front of the gym, blocking the flow of traffic in the child pick-up lane.
Collins said in the report he got to the truck as a man was coming out of the gym with two children. The deputy asked the man if that was his truck. Collins said the reply was “What does it matter to you?” Collins told him he needed to park in the gym parking lot if he had to go inside to get his children and not block the traffic flow.
According to the report, the man told Collins: “F _ _ _ you, I don’t have to do anything you tell me to do.”
Collins then told the subject, identified in the report and booking information as Billy Wayne Rhodes (pictured), 44, of Batesville, that he was under arrest. Collins said Rhodes then got into his truck and slammed the door in the officer’s face. When Collins opened the door and reached in to get Rhodes, the deputy reported Rhodes jerked away and slammed the truck into gear with the truck’s front and back doors still open and the children inside with their seat belts unbuckled.
Collins said he had to run to avoid being hit by the truck doors as the vehicle sped across the parking lot and out onto the roadway, the report noted.
After contacting the sheriff’s office for assistance, the deputy gave dispatch the license plate information and truck description and said that the subject resisted arrest.
A check of the license plate numbers by dispatch came back with an address to a nearby residence. At the same time, the report noted Rhodes was calling dispatch asking for an officer to come to the same address to discuss the incident with Collins at the school. Officials said later Rhodes also made inflammatory calls about Collins to the school during that period of time.
The “officer” Rhodes requested from dispatch turned out to be Collins — who drove his patrol unit to the noted address, found Rhodes, and informed the suspect that he was still under arrest, the report said.
Officials say as Collins started to handcuff Rhodes, a physical fight started. The altercation, which was described in the report as “lengthy,” ended when Rhodes told Collins “he gave up,” according to the report.
Collins said he then dragged Rhodes over to his handcuffs, which were lying on the ground after being dropped during the scuffle, and cuffed Rhodes. Collins then placed Rhodes into his patrol unit and radioed dispatch that Rhodes was in custody. That was about the time other deputies got there. One officer assisted Collins with a cut the deputy suffered on his left ear, the report said.
Rhodes has been charged with three felonies: first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, second-degree battery, and fleeing. He has also been charged with three misdemeanors: disorderly conduct (using abusive and obscene speech in a public place), reckless driving, and resisting arrest.
Image via Independence County Sheriff’s Department
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