After ingesting a cocktail of cocaine, methamphetamines, LSD and other unidentified drugs, a still-unidentified man ran through lower Capitol Hill and Eastlake Tuesday night, smashing cars and stripping off his clothes before collapsing on the side of the road.
Around 7:30 PM, police received a report of a man—described as a 30-to-40 year-old white male wearing a white t-shirt and no pants—was throwing rocks and denting and smashing cars near Lakeview Boulevard and Belmont Ave E.
At the scene, officers found a damaged car at the scene, and located the suspect walking near Lakeview and Boylston Ave E.
When officers contacted the man—who had apparently torn out patches of his own hair—he refused to provide officers with his identity, giving them a fake name. Then he took off running.
Officers chased the man, who stopped mid-flight, picked up a large rock and turned back toward officers. Police told the man to drop the rock, which he did, before he again fled down the street, stripping off his remaining clothing as he ran.
Officers eventually found the now-completely naked suspect lying on his back in a planting strip in the 2000 block of Minor Ave E—about a half-mile from the scene of the original incident—and took him into custody.
The man told officers he had taken cocaine, methamphetamines, LSD and other unidentified drugs earlier in the evening.
After officers arrested the man, he began scratching all over his body, asked officers for his clothes, and then complained he was too hot.
“I could feel his heart racing just while I was holding his arm to brace him,” Officer Jay McNeil observed in a report of the incident.
Officers called for medics, who transported the man to Harborview for treatment. Police weren’t immediately able to identify the man, who was unable to provide police with his real name or home address.