Icelandic man sentenced to probation after assaulting police officer during disturbance at local restaurant
A man who pushed a police officer to the ground and attempted to flee was sentenced to three months of probation for crimes against the authorities. The incident occurred last year in Akureyri, Iceland.
The police were initially called to a disturbance at Backpackers, a local restaurant and hostel. When police arrived at the scene, a staff member at Backpackers could not identify the individuals involved in the disturbance. Based on eyewitness accounts, the police decided to speak with a man believed to be involved.
The man refused to talk to the police and asked if he was under arrest. When the police responded negatively, he said, “Then I’m going,” and walked away. Shortly after, he reportedly pushed a police officer and began running down Kaupvangsstræti, a nearby street. He then tried to evade the police in a car park on Skipagötu.
When the police officer caught up with him, the man grabbed his safety vest and threw him to the ground. The officer landed badly on his right hip and elbow, and the man landed on top of him.
In his defense, the man claimed that he was sleep-deprived and poorly prepared as he was separating from his wife and mother of 15 years. He said he had neither consumed alcohol nor drugs that night and ran away because he found the police’s intervention irritating.
The man said he was running when someone “came in from the side” or grabbed his shoulder, causing him to fall to the ground and land on top of the police officer. He denied being capable of throwing the officer to the ground as he was already running.
However, surveillance footage contradicted the man’s account. The footage clearly showed the man suddenly stopped running, grabbed the officer, and either knocked him down or pulled him down.
The man claimed that the police officers were arrogant, accusatory, and threatening, and they did not want to listen to what he had to say. He just wanted to get out of the situation.
In the end, the man was ordered to pay nearly 1.2 million in legal costs and was sentenced to three months of probation.