Crime & Safety
Police: Birthday Partier Who Got Shocked Said, 'I Would Have Tasered Me, Too'
We have a few more key details about a previously reported scuffle among Mokena police officers and bar patrons. The Tinley man at the center of the brew-ha-ha told cops he drank at least 7 beers and 6 shots of liquor before the fight, reports said.
According to , the Tinley Park man during an early December scuffle outside a bowling alley doesn't blame them for their method of restraint.
Before being taken into custody on charges of aggravated battery, criminal trespassing to property and obstructing a peace officer, Kenneth E. Braasch apologized to officers for putting up a knockdown fight, according to the police report which then quoted him as saying: "If I was in your position, I would have Tasered me, too."
Braasch, 28, of the 7700 block of 173rd Street in , was arrested after being treated at Silver Cross Hospital, where he allegedly told police he had no recollection of what occurred earlier that night and reported drinking upwards of seven beers and six shots of liquor before the fight ensued.
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Mokena police were called to Thunder Bowl in the early hours of Dec. 3 because bowling alley staff said Braasch was inebriated and caught trying to break a paper towel dispenser in the bathroom.
He quarreled with a bouncer on the way out, according to the report, and told police he had been simply celebrating his birthday when the bouncer began to "mess" with him.
Find out what's happening in Tinley Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Responding officers said Braasch began yelling obscenities about not being able to retrieve his bowling ball from inside, and he was Tased for refusing to sit down and assuming a "fighter's stance."
On the ground, Braasch allegedly struck one officer under the chin. While on his feet, he took a swing at another who was holding the Taser, the report said, noting that the officer then struck Braasch with his left hand in defense. With his right, the same officer shot Braasch again with the Taser.
That’s when Braasch’s roommate, Tiffany A. Powicki, 34, rushed toward him and entangled herself in the electric wires, police said.
Once separated, police noticed blood seeping from Braasch’s head and called an ambulance. Two of the four arresting officers reported cuts on their knees, and sometime during the debacle, police lost the keys to one of their squad cars.
Powicki, James C. Stross, 32, of the 7500 block of Gladstone Drive in Tinley Park and Richard D. Henderson, 28, of the 3900 block of 86th Place in Chicago, were each charged with obstructing a peace officer.
Details of how Stross and Henderson were involved in the fight were not clear or immediately available from investigators on Tuesday.
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