A 49-year-old Juneau resident was medevaced to Seattle on Wednesday after sustaining a head injury while being arrested by Juneau police.
According to a press release from the department, they first responded around 8 p.m. to reports of a woman fighting with a man in front of the Douglas Public Library.
Charging documents say Marisa Didrickson, 47, threw water in the face of a 52-year-old man, who was sitting on a park bench, and made racist comments about him. A witness told police Didrickson had charged “across the street” at the fleeing man. Didrickson was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
When police were taking Didrickson into their patrol car, the 49-year-old man, who is not identified by police, and doesn’t seem, as of Thursday evening, to have been charged with a crime, approached, according to police. The release says that he is “a friend of Didrickson’s,” and that she told him to “take care of” the 52-year-old man.
The release says that the 49-year-old man approached an arresting officer “in an aggressive manner” and that he was “taken to the ground” when police attempted to handcuff him.
In a video of the encounter posted on social media, a Juneau Police officer can be seen holding the 49-year-old man against a patrol car while Didrickson is being placed handcuffed into the back of a second vehicle. The officer suddenly drops down and flips the man over his head and into the sidewalk, at which point the man does not move for the remainder of the clip — roughly a minute.
“The 49-year-old male sustained an injury to his head during the encounter,” the release reads. “He was transported by (Capital City Fire/Rescue) to (Bartlett Regional Hospital), and later medevacked to Seattle.”
The incident is under investigation, per the release.
Didrickson was taken to Lemon Creek Correctional Center and arraigned at Juneau Courthouse on Thursday. Her next court appearance is on Sept. 15.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
