An elderly man will be charged with committing a rash act endangering public safety today after he was dramatically arrested for striking passing vehicles with a hammer on a Bedok road.
Yesterday’s arrest was captured in a 2-minute clip showing the man, in only shorts and a T-shirt and holding the rather small hammer in his right hand, hit a passing truck moments before an officer dives forward and takes him to the ground in a tackle, after which he’s dog-piled on by other cops and passers-by.
“The 66-year-old man, believed to be of unsound mind, was subsequently arrested for committing a rash act. No member of the public was injured,” the police said in a statement today.
The incident took place at 4pm at Bedok North Road, it added.
In the clip, the man appears to have large scars on his head; police said they would seek to have him remanded to the Institute of Mental Health where he would be assessed.
The clip has been posted to several Facebook pages, including District Singapore, where it has been viewed more than 131,000 times and shared thousands of times as of Thursday morning.
It opens with the man already standing in the middle of the road, pacing and apparently unaware or unconcerned that the police had arrived on the scene.
“There, the police!” a voice can be heard in the background of the clip, which appears to be filmed from a double-decker public bus. The camera then pans right to show an officer and another man pointing toward the armed uncle from the median.
The man turns around and seems to notice the police officer behind him but then proceeds to use his hammer on a passing lorry like it was a xylophone. As soon as the vehicle passes, the officer makes his move.
Several more officers and two other passers-by join in the scuffle until the man ends up in cuffs and is moved onto grass turf beside the road.
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