Man accused of chasing boys with machete
Oklahoma City police arrested a man Thursday in Metro Park after he reportedly beat and chased three boys who offered him a bottle of water.
About 6 p.m. in the 1800 block of NW 7 St., the boys, two 12 years old and one 14 years old, told police they thought a man, identified as Arturo Jimenez Montoya, looked as if he needed a drink of water.
The 70-year-old was leaning against a mailbox and grew irate when the boys approached him. He pushed one of the boys to the ground and began swinging his fists “aimlessly,” punching the boy in the face, according to a police report.
The other boys were struck when they pushed the man off of the boy, but they got away and ran down the street, according to the report.
The man then reportedly chased after them with two long blades, screaming, “I am going to kill somebody.”
The boys told police the man threw a 20-inch blade at them while they were running, but it missed them and fell into a storm drain, according to the report. Police later recovered a blade and determined it was broken off of a paper cutter.
A motorist stopped and “shooed” the man away from the boys, while a neighbor called police, according to the report.
An officer saw Montoya walking down the street with a machete in his hand and arrested him, according to the report. Montoya was unsteady on his feet and slurred his speech, according to the report.
Montoya told the officer he was “working on the grass,” according to the report.
Montoya was initially compliant in dropping the machete, but he reportedly became belligerent while in the back seat of the police car.
Montoya told the officer he was “just a working Mexican” and a victim of prejudice, and he threatened the officer’s life, saying he was going to have him killed and “thrown in the river,” according to the report.
Montoya was booked into the Oklahoma County jail that evening on a complaint of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He remained there Friday in lieu of $10,000 bail.