A man on a bicycle threatened a landscaper with a metal baseball bat before stealing a leaf blower and batteries, according to charges. Police responded around 4:55 p.m. Sept. 17 to Wacouta and Eighth streets in downtown Saint Paul.
Demetrius Dexter Linton, 38, of South Saint Paul, is charged in Ramsey County District Court with first-degree aggravated robbery, threats of violence, fifth-degree drug possession, carrying a BB gun in a public place and fleeing an officer without a motor vehicle.
The landscaper told police he had placed a hedge trimmer on a retaining wall when a man rode past and pretended to grab it. After an exchange of words, the man pulled a bat from behind his back and approached as the landscaper backed away in fear, the complaint says.
The man then rode to the crew’s work truck, took a leaf blower and two batteries from the bed and left on his bicycle, according to the complaint.
An officer searching nearby found a man with a leaf blower in a grassy area near Olive Street. The man set it down near the woods and ran when the officer told him to stop. He then grabbed someone else’s bicycle and rode away as the officer pursued him by bike, police said.
The man left the bicycle near the Lafayette Road bridge and ran into brush. The officer caught him as he tried to climb a fence and handcuffed him after a struggle. Police identified him as Linton.
Officers found a handgun-style BB gun and a bag of suspected drugs in his backpack. A presumptive test was positive for methamphetamine, with a net weight of 0.30 grams, according to the complaint. Police recovered the leaf blower, which the landscaper identified, but did not find the bat.
After receiving a Miranda warning, Linton acknowledged taking a leaf blower that did not belong to him, knowing an officer was trying to stop him and having methamphetamine in his backpack, the complaint says.
The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
