Casper Police: Man Arrested After Grabbing Knife, Drinking Bleach
Casper police officers arrested a man Wednesday, a day after he reportedly grabbed a knife, locked himself in a bathroom and drank bleach in an effort to avoid being taken into custody.
Timothy Michael Houck, born in 1985, was booked into jail on a recommended misdemeanor charge of interference as well as a probation revocation.
On Tuesday, a Casper police officer went to a home in the 3000 Block of E. 10th St. to assist state probation and parole agents. One agent reported that Houck was going to jail for either a probation revocation or a sanction.
When agents went to search Houck's truck, Houck pleaded with them to not send him to jail. He said he had been going to work every day, but an agent told Houck that he was going to jail either way for a sanction or revocation.
"The arrest information conveyed to Houck was done so in front of [the police officer], implying that Houck was not free to leave and was in fact detained," the affidavit of probable cause states.
Houck allegedly turned and ran past several of his family members into the house, then shut and locked the front door.
One of Houck's family members unlocked the door and went into the home against the police officer's advice. That family member then announced, from inside the home, that Houck had grabbed a knife and gone downstairs to the bathroom.
Officers went into the home and followed Houck downstairs. There, Houck's father told officers that Houck was in the bathroom with a butcher's knife.
Officers demanded that Houck open the door and show his hands. Houck responded that he was drinking bleach.
After further commands for Houck to open the door went ignored, officers kicked the door in and entered the bathroom, where they gained physical control over Houck.
Inside the bathroom were a knife and an open bottle of bleach which was spilled "all over the bathroom." Houck had a foaming, white substance inside his mouth, and he told officers it was bleach.
Houck was taken to Wyoming Medical Center for treatment. A probation officer told officers that Houck would need to be charged with probation revocation as of that moment.
One of Houck's family members allegedly told police that Houck used methamphetamine and repeatedly relapsed after staying off the drug for a period of time.
Houck was released from the hospital Wednesday and was subsequently arrested.