Police: City Dock piano player 'Dr. Z' slapped officer
Annapolis police say the man who has played the public piano near City Dock, also known as “Dr. Z,” slapped an officer while being arrested for public intoxication on Tuesday.
Police wrote in a report that officers were called to the Main Street Mini Mart around 9 p.m. after the owner said he had an issue with a customer.
The owner told investigators that Gerard Mackell, 56, had come into the store “highly intoxicated” and began causing a disturbance.
Mackell is a well-known figure around City Dock, where he often played the colorfully painted piano by Market House.
After Mackell was escorted out of the Mini Mart — with the owner saying Mackell threatened to kill him if he called the police — the report says Mackell “fell into the front window of the store and (caused) several large cracks in the glass.”
The owner also told police Mackell was rummaging through an unlocked vehicle and wrote “Dr. Z” with his finger in the dew on the hood.
When the officer caught up with Mackell on Duke of Gloucester, Mackell became upset with the officer when he started to detain him.
“Mr. Mackell became very upset with me and stated he was ‘gonna slap the s--- out of you,’” Ofc. Kempton Urban wrote in his report.
“I then told him that would not be nice,” Urban said in the report.
Mackell did not heed the advice of the officer and slapped him across his face — “my left cheek and ear,” the officer wrote — with his right hand.
He slapped him so hard that another officer told Urban “that the side of my face was red and he could see a hand print from where Mr. Mackell slapped me,” he wrote.
Police were able to detain him and Mackell faces various public intoxication, assault and property damage charges.
Mackell has a significant criminal history as court records show multiple convictions for several misdemeanor crimes and several open cases for theft, assault and an open alcoholic container charges.
He was released on his own recognizance, court records state. No attorney is listed as representing him.