PRINCETON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – A man faces charges in relation to a series of incidents Wednesday during which a litany of public offenses were committed including malicious assault and child abuse.
Reports from the Princeton Police Department indicate that, on Wednesday, October 18, 2022, at 4:15pm, Patrolman E.D. Leftwich was dispatched to a Princeton residence by Mercer County 911 to respond to a fight in progress.
A man, later identified as Clayton Jefferson Beech, was said to be on the property punching a wall when he took off with his two year old daughter and drew a knife.
Beech was said to be wandering and screaming while carrying the child.
When officers arrived on the scene, Beech was found to have started a fight with three men, during which the two year old child was wandering along the yellow line in the middle of the road.
Once the child was safely removed from the road by Lt. Weatherly, officers advanced toward the suspect who could be seen hunched over screaming at the door of the residence. One man, later identified as David Fellman, was bleeding from the nose after having been punched in the face by the suspect.
Reports indicate that officers could detect the odor of alcohol on Beech’s breath, and that the suspect was behaving in an erratic manner consistent with a state of impairment.
Beech then proceeded to assault Lt. Weatherly and Patrolman Leftwich, and was placed under arrest following a brief struggle.
The suspect was placed in a police vehicle, and officers spoke with Patricia Swiger who revealed that the incident had begun with an argument over a game of Magic the Gathering, and the suspects wish to smoke a cigarette in the house around small children.
The statement continued, revealing that the suspect had previously been bragging to those at the residence that he had consumed “four beers, three shots of wild turkey whiskey mixed with tequila, and a whole jar of moonshine.”
It was also stated that Beech had choked Kyle Brown, who stated that he did not wish to pursue charges.
Swiger said Beech then “ran off with his daughter down the road.”
The report emphasizes that, at the time of the incident, it was around 30 degrees Farenheit with an 8 to 15mph wind with a chill of 23 degrees Fahrenheit per the national weather service provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Victim David Fellman informed officers that Beech was walking up the road screaming for help, and that he had taken a video of this.
The video provided shows the suspect placing his daughter down in a stack of wet leaves next to a fence near the road before screaming “Bring it Mother Fucker” and crossing the road, abandoning the two year old child near the active roadway.
At this point in the video, the suspect begins wrestling with Fellman on his property before assaulting him.
Beech then attacked a car parked by the residence, kicking and hitting it, causing damage and knocking off a mirror.
Following his arrest, Beech was transported by authorities to the Princeton Police Department. During the transport, officers report that the suspect banged his head on the cage and back glass of the vehicle repeatedly while screaming profanities.
The suspect was observed to have sustained a number of injuries upon arrival at the police department, and was transported to Princeton Community Hospital for treatment.
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