Inside the Police Reports: Man Fights Police over $35 Drug Test Kit

Lilburn police had to chase, taser and finally wrestle a 51-year-old man to the ground who was suspected of stealing a drug test kit from the Walmart store at 4004 Lawrenceville Highway, according to a police report.

The Atlanta resident was charged with two felony counts, shoplifting and resisting arrest, after the scuffle last Monday.

The incident report said two Lilburn officers showed up at the store after being called by Walmart security, who said they’d seen a man stealing a $35 box of home drug test strips. The officers saw a man fitting the description at the Murphy gas station on the Walmart parking lot. They approached him, asked him if he’d taken anything from Walmart and asked if could search the vehicle he was riding in, a gold Chevrolet Tahoe.

The man grew nervous and the police found a drug test kit under the SUV’s front passenger seat. According to the report, the man then took off running. Police caught him first at a grassy strip, but he fought back and broke away. He ran again and tripped over a curb. One officer had already drawn his taser, warned the man he would fire and then did so as the man got up.  

The taser only partially hit the man, who kept running. The two officers caught him again on the parking lot and a fight ensued, with the man struggling as the officers tried to get him under control. He was finally handcuffed and checked by medics before being driven to jail.