KANSAS CITY —A Kansas City man has been charged with assaulting and causing serious physical injury to a Kansas City Police Department officer who was working in a Downtown store, according to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.
Jorge I. Arroyo, 40, faces Assault in the 1st Degree and Armed Criminal Action charges.
According to court records, just after 8:15 a.m. June 30, police were dispatched to the Cosentino's Downtown Market on East 13th Street for a reported assist of an officer.
A sergeant was working off-duty, in uniform, when he was assaulted by a man after the officer asked him to leave the store and placed the man's belongings outside the store.
The officer told police he had asked Arroyo to leave after he was told he previously been caught stealing. Arroyo became enraged, picked up a metal chair, and hit the officer in the head. The officer fell to the ground while Arroyo kept striking him. The officer radioed for assistance. Customers and store employees restrained the defendant until other officers arrived. Witnesses told police they saw Arroyo swinging the chair at the officer. The officer underwent surgery for a head laceration and required up to 30 stitches. He also injured his hand.
Arroyo remains jail on $150,000 cash bond.