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Berkeley man charged for resisting officers in alleged attack

Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN)
Thursday July 07, 2016 - 10:12:00 PM

A Berkeley man was charged today with four counts of resisting a police officer and two counts of exhibiting a deadly weapon for a scuffle outside a West Berkeley grocery store on Tuesday that left four officers injured, police said. 

Jason Joyner, 42, was scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland this afternoon. 

Berkeley police spokesman Lt. Kevin Schofield said Joyner brandished a silver, double-edge knife at two Department of Public Works employees in the area of San Pablo Avenue and Harrison Street at about 8:54 a.m. on Tuesday "for no apparent reason." 

The employees said Joyner held the knife with the blade turned outward toward them and "believed that Joyner acted aggressively by kicking and yelling at fixed objects and yelling at them," Officer Jessyca Nabozny wrote in a probable cause statement. 

Responding officers contacted Joyner at Harrison and 10th streets and ordered him to stop numerous times as they tried to de-escalate the situation but Joyner ignored their commands and walked away from the officers, at one point pulling out his knife and brandishing it at the officers, according to Schofield. 

Joyner then dropped the knife and walked south on Ninth Street from Harrison Street toward the front of 1025 Gilman St., where a Whole Foods Market is located, and continued to refuse commands to stop, Schofield said. 

The officers tried to stop Joyner from entering the store for the safety of the employees and customers who were inside but he violently resisted and wouldn't allow himself to be handcuffed, according to Schofield. 

During the struggle, four officers suffered injuries ranging from minor abrasions and scrapes to a potentially more serious knee injury for one of the officers, he said. 

In addition, three officers were exposed to Joyner's blood that came from a cut on his hand, Schofield said. 

Joyner's blood will be tested so the officers will know if they have been exposed to any communicable diseases, he said. 

It took numerous officers to finally place Joyner under arrest and they had to place him in restraints in order to transport him to jail, police said. Paramedics treated Joyner for the minor cut on his hand before booking him into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, where he is being held. 

Schofield said Joyner is "well-known" to Berkeley police. 

Prosecutors said Joyner has two prior felony convictions, one for second-degree burglary of a vehicle in Alameda County in 2006 and one for receiving stolen property in Solano County in 2007. 

On June 17, Joyner pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for stealing a bicycle near San Pablo Avenue and Gilman Street on June 14. That location is near the site of Tuesday's incident. 

He was sentenced to two days in the county jail and placed on three years' probation. 

Berkeley police Officer Cesar Melero wrote in a probable cause statement that the evidence in the case indicates that Joyner cut a cable lock to steal a bike owned by the city of Berkeley that had been secured to a bike rack. 

Melero said that within six minutes of the theft he saw Joyner riding the stolen bicycle one block away from where it had been taken. 

He said a search revealed that Joyner was in possession of a pair of cutting pliers and a credit card that didn't belong to him. 

Melero said Joyner was on probation for a battery on a police officer conviction.