Motorist grabs cop’s neck during standoff

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

An inebriated motorist who grabbed a policeman’s neck for trying to detain him following a traffic accident has won a lenient punishment.

The Arab employee, 26, rammed his car into another driven by a Bangladeshi man after the latter stopped at traffic lights on a street in the Dubai International City at around 9am on Jul.28, 2018. The latter called police.

He battered a police corporal, his colleague and a policeman. He pounced on the policeman and grabbed his neck. He contacted a runaway countrywoman who dragged cop after cop away and scratched the colleague.

During prosecution and court questionings he said the woman was the one who assaulted the cops. The Criminal Court imprisoned him for six months plus deportation. He sought mercy. The Appeals Court halved the term.

On the record, the Yemeni corporal and his colleague rushed to the scene and detected he was drunk. He behaved abnormally. They got his licence and car ownership certificate and took him inside their patrol vehicle.  He requested them to allow him fetch his belongings from his car. He stepped out and instead contacted the woman. She showed up and troubled them. She sat inside the patrol vehicle telling cops to take her instead.

She stopped them from taking the employee inside the vehicle. She grabbed the corporal by his uniform. Meanwhile, the corporal asked his colleague to restrain the employee. He contacted the operations room for backup.  The woman clutched the corporal and pushed him away then pushed his colleague. A support patrol arrived and helped both police officers pin down the employee. The woman dashed and disappeared in the street.

The Yemeni colleague testified that the employee’s car had broken down. They were pushing it to the roadside when they smelled alcohol on his breath. “I seized him,” he said. “The woman scratched my left arm. With the help of other officers, we subdued the employee and forced him inside the patrol vehicle as he twisted and hurled blows to stop us. He also tried to kick me. The woman kept dragging us away by our uniforms.”

The Emirati policeman who arrived with the support patrol complained, “The woman shouted telling the employee to escape. He resisted being shackled, pulled his hands away, grabbed me by the neck and kicked me.” A Comorian policeman seconded the Emirati policeman’s complaint. A forensic report showed he sustained a contusion on his upper lip. The Yemeni corporal sustained a bruise and his colleague sustained scratch marks.