It took scraped fingers, two pairs of handcuffs and two minutes of fierce resistance for University police to apprehend a mentally ill man Wednesday afternoon.
At 11 a.m., University Police Officer Richard Lamkin responded to a 911 medical emergency call on the West Bank. When he arrived, the man who made the call refused the medical attention he called for and left the area before an ambulance could arrive.
Less than an hour afterward, Lamkin responded to another call from the same man, this time from the Donhowe Building at 319 15th Avenue S.E.
Lamkin, who suspected that the man was mentally ill, called for backup. Officers Matthew Quast and Darryll Stohl arrived. The three officers went to room 310 and knocked on the door.
When the man answered, he became very irate with the officers and told them to leave, according to the police report.
The officers said they tried to speak with the man, but he became angrier and looked as though he would hit Lamkin.
Afraid he would strike someone, the officers tried to restrain the man. Stohl said he wasn’t particularly large or heavyset, but very strong.
After two minutes of struggling, the three officers managed to bind the man with two pairs of linked handcuffs.
“Usually they stop after they’re restrained, but this guy continued to kick and struggle,” Stohl said.
The man began yelling, “They’re trying to kill me” when police restrained him, according to the police report. While struggling, he also yelled that others were trying to kill him.
The man continued to struggle when a Hennepin County ambulance arrived. University police had to help paramedics restrain the struggling man by strapping him face down on a long backboard.
He was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center mental unit and placed on a three-day hold.
Stohl said that throughout the incident their biggest concern was the man’s own safety.
“His frame of mind and chance of hurting himself are great,” Stohl said.
In other police news:
ù An intoxicated University student threw a small couch through a 3-by-3 foot lobby window in Sanford Hall at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday and fled afterward.
University Police Officer Jeffrey Gilchrist was patrolling Sanford with residence hall staff members when the incident occurred.
According to a police report, when Gilchrist returned to the main lobby, several people explained that a drunk man had broken the window.
The offender ran from the lobby after the incident but Gilchrist caught him near room 205.
Gilchrist cited the 20-year-old for minor consumption and damaged property and released him.

ù A man allegedly assaulted his girlfriend sometime between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Thursday in the Commonwealth Terrace Cooperative.
University Police Investigator Charles Miner said a man, who is not affiliated with the University, has been identified as a suspect. However, the man has not been arrested and the victim has not pressed charges, Miner said.
The woman sustained minor scrapes, Miner said.
Neither drugs nor alcohol were mentioned in the police report.