Man with samurai sword hit with Taser, arrested

St. George police used a Taser to subdue a man who threatened several people with a samurai sword in a bizarre confrontation in the middle of a suburban street.

When officers responded to a call about a fight in progress, they found a man wielding a metal pipe, a woman kneeling in the street and a man next to her with a samurai sword raised over his head, Sgt. Craig Harding said.

"Imagine our officers getting there and seeing this," Harding said.

Police said the man with the pipe was a neighbor who heard yelling and screaming Thursday night. He went outside and saw a man hitting a 51-year-old woman, Harding said.

"He goes over and intervenes," Harding said. "(The suspect) says 'I'm going to kill him,' runs into the house and comes out with the samurai sword and chases this would-be do-gooder around a truck. The guy picks up a pipe and it was a stand-off until officers arrived."

Police ordered the neighbor to drop the pipe, which he did. Officers said the woman initially resisted commands to move away from the sword-wielding man.

"(The suspect) continued to look straight ahead," Harding said. "The officer drew his Taser and told him ten times to drop the sword. Each time he said, 'No, you're going to have to shoot me.'"

In a police report filed Friday, officer Jared Taylor said he deployed the Taser, striking the man in the back.

"He arched backwards and hit his head on the pavement. He did not drop the sword," Taylor wrote. "I cycled it again as he stood up with the sword."

After a third shock, Harding said officers were able to kick the sword away. The man was treated for a cut on his head and puncture marks in his back from the Taser probes.

Police arrested and booked Jared Beasley, 22, into the Purgatory Correctional Facility on investigation of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

"This guy would have been dead if it had not been for Tasers," Harding said. "This saved a person's life that night."

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