A man with a history of violence was arrested on the Interstate 70 median last week after swinging a set of nunchaku in front of an officer with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
The man was wearing a full-length trenchcoat and declared he was kicked off a bus in Silverthorne while on his way from Denver to Los Angeles, according to a sheriff’s report.
The man said he had been “riding the bus when he saw a girl with the swine flu and attempted to eliminate her by grabbing her throat,” according to the sheriff’s report.
Another passenger hit the man, and he was thrown off the bus before he got into a fight with a gang at a gas station in Silverthorne, the man said.
Authorities found the man after receiving a call that he was in the I-70 median waving his arms at cars and screaming. As the officer approached, the man turned his back, hiding his hands. When the man turned around, the officer spotted the nunchaku in his pants waistband.
Asked if he was carrying the weapon, the man responded: “Yeah, I am a karate master!”
The man began to swing the nunchaku around his upper body. The officer aimed a Taser at him, decided he was too far away and began reaching for his handgun.
The man dropped the nunchaku and began to walk away. A knife and some marijuana were found on him, in addition to the martial arts weapon.
En route to Summit County Jail, the man told the officer “that he was 468 years old and was being hunted across the country by priests, nuns and monks,” according to the report.
He said he had just gotten out of prison after a prior assault in which he said he was shot in the foot by Denver police. Although the man acknowledged he was prohibited from owning nunchaku in Colorado, he said he could just get another pair if the ones he was carrying were taken.
He also talked to imaginary people while riding to the jail, the report said.
After the man was taken to jail, the officer inspected the back of the patrol car and found two .40-caliber handgun rounds. But no gun was found on the man or on the highway, and he said he didn’t know where the rounds came from.
A background check showed assault and violence charges and several felony convictions in the past 10 years.
He was charged with possession of a prohibited weapon, felony menacing, felony weapons possession by a previous offender, and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
