A Washington state man who “snorted methamphetamine to lose weight” and caused alarm by waving an AK-47 at a busy intersection while shouting that President Donald Trump ordered him to fight “the lizard people,” was shocked with a Taser gun by police and is being mentally evaluated, authorities said.
The 54-year-old man stopped his white Jeep Cherokee in the middle of the intersection on Nov. 25, at 108th Street and South Pacific Avenue in Parkland about 8:03 p.m., the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said. A witness called 911 to report the suspicious activity.
Washington State Patrol troopers arrived on the scene to find the man “waving around an AK-47” as well as a loaded Ruger .357 revolver. The man put the guns back in the car as troopers approached him—some armed with rifles of their own.
“The man immediately laid on the ground and started to scream about ‘sending in the news’ and about ‘the lizard people,’” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “As our patrol deputy and a trooper attempted to place him in handcuffs, he suddenly pulled away his arms and tried to resist being handcuffed while continuing to scream.”
Both a deputy and a trooper fired Tasers at the man, the sheriff’s department said. The man was then handcuffed.
According to the sheriff’s department, the man told the arresting officers he had snorted methamphetamine to lose weight and was taking prescribed morphine, but added “the meth doesn’t make me crazy man, the lizard people are real!”
“The man went on to described how President Trump had called his house in Eatonville and warned him that the lizard people were coming and that the alpha dragon had already taken his family hostage,” the sheriff’s department said. “He said he had stopped in the intersection because he was surrounded by the lizard people and need to fight them as directed by the President. He said he was screaming and making a scene in the intersection in order to ‘attract the news vans’ and so ‘his story could be documented for history.’”
U.S. & World
Medics at the scene determined the man was “heavily under the influence of a stimulant” and he was placed in a 14-day mental health evaluation hold.
Inside the car was found a loaded Century Arms AK-47, the revolver, five loaded magazines for the rifle, a holster for the revolver and a wooden bat, the sheriff’s department said. There were 170 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition loaded in the magazines for the AK-47. The cache of weapons was booked into evidence, the sheriff’s office said.
Police released images of the small cache of weapons inside the car on the passenger's side of the vehicle. A long black rifle can be seen propped against the passenger seat, next to a camouflage backpack, rifle magazines and a silver revolver.
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It was unclear if the man would be charged with a crime pending the mental health evaluation.
