Patterson credited with helping control situation
Rodney Patterson is being credited for keeping a bad situation from getting worse when he helped McCaysville Police Officer Peter Kusek take a suspect into custody last Monday night, August 31.
Kusek had been fighting with the suspect, Nicholas Craig Payne, 25, for over five minutes when Patterson arrived to help get Payne in custody and under control.
According to Kusek’s report, the incident began when Kusek was dispatched to the Barry Street apartments to the report of a man and a woman arguing loudly in the parking lot.
When Kusek arrived on the scene shortly after 8:30 p.m., he spotted a Chevrolet 3500 pickup style truck leaving the parking lot. His information led him to believe the driver, later identified as Payne, to be the suspect from the fight.
Kusek blocked the entrance to the apartments, but Payne got around the McCaysville police vehicle by driving over a concrete curb and across the grass.
Kusek pursued the truck and Payne stopped at Kingtown Street.
Payne got out of his truck and Kusek, with gun drawn, told him he was under arrest and ordered him to get on the ground.
Payne refused and began shouting for Kusek to shoot him as he moved toward the officer.
Kusek’s report described Payne’s actions as “defiant and bizarre,” and the suspect continued challenging the officer to shoot him.
With Payne in an arm’s reach of Kusek, the officer holstered his gun and attemped to put Payne on the ground.
Payne tried to get away, was pepper sprayed by Kusek, and then went to the ground.
During the struggle, Kusek was able to get a handcuff on Payne’s left wrist, but the fight continued.
Kusek’s report said that after he had been fighting with Payne for about five minutes, Patterson pulled up.
Patterson took control of the suspect’s left, handcuffed wrist, allowing Kusek to get the right wrist handcuffed.
Patterson then retrieved a garden hose from a nearby house to wash the pepper spray from both Payne and Kusek.
Patterson said he had been out in his yard, which is approximately 300 yards from when the fight happened, when he heard shouts of “quit resisting, quit resisting.”
He said he told his wife someone needed help and then drove to where the shouts came from.
Kusek wrote in his report, “Needless to say I was very grateful as he (Patterson) was the first person to arrive to assist me, even before any other law enforcement officers got there.”
McCaysville Police Chief Mike Earley said he was eating at the Pizza Hut in Blue Ridge when Fannin County dispatch called him and told him one of his officers was in a fight and needed help.
He asked them to have Fannin County deputies respond, but was told their estimated arrival time would be 25 minutes.
Off-duty McCaysville Officer Brian Collis arrived on the scene after the suspect was in custody.
Payne, of 1584 Elisha Payne Circle, Blairsville, was charged with one felony count and one misdemeanor count of obstruction of an officer, and misdemeanor counts of fleeing/attempting to elude police, and reckless driving. He was released under a $5,000 bond.
Based on Payne’s actions, along with statements obtained after he was arrested, officers believe he was high on methamphetamine when the incident occurred.