Seven Massachusetts police officers were attacked when they asked a driver to slow down in a construction zone.
Revere Lt. Jeremiah Goodwin had waved down a driver for going to fast, and according to WCVB that’s when Joseph M. Parker jumped out of his car and punched Goodwin in the head, knocking him out cold.
“He was combative at the scene,” Officer Dennis Hickey Jr. said. “When we arrived it was very hard to get him into the cruiser.”
Parker allegedly attacked the officers who tried to arrest him as well as three more officers at the police station.
“At times he was very compliant with us,” Hickey said, reports WCVB. “And he was actually quite cordial, and then at other times he would fly off the handle.”
Police noted that Parker seemed to be under the influence of drugs. During the assault, he also yelled about events in Ferguson, Missouri and shouted, “(expletive) you cops with your guns.”
Goodwin suffered a concussion and was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital along with an officer who was injured at the station. Both are expected to recover.
Parker has since been charged with assault and battery, assault and battery on a police officer, malicious destruction of property, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.