Two Port Townsend police officers hurt after responding to bar incident

Published 12:01 am Monday, November 17, 2014

PORT TOWNSEND — Two police officers suffered minor injuries when responding to an incident at a Taylor Street bar on Sunday evening, authorities said today.

The officers, who were not identified by the Port Townsend Police Department, responded to a call from the Middletown Dream Bar, 213 Taylor St., at 7:38 p.m. that a man allegedly threatened to kill a 67-year-old woman who had seen him earlier at another bar.

As the man, identified by police as Paul Heisey, 51, a transient who was reportedly intoxicated, was being arrested for investigation of felony harassment/threats to kill, he allegedly resisted the officers’ attempts to search him and place him in a patrol car.

The ensuing struggle caused the injuries to the officers, one of whom was seen in the Jefferson Healthcare hospital emergency room and taken off duty for the rest of his shift. The other officer did not seek emergency medical treatment.

Other Port Townsend police and Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies rushed to the scene and were needed to help control Heisey, according to a statement from the Police Department today.

Heisey was taken to Jefferson Healthcare’s emergency room — standard procedure for an intoxicated person, police said — and he continued to be aggressive toward hospital employees.

He was cleared by the hospital for incarceration and taken to Jefferson County jail in Port Hadlock, where he still was allegedly belligerent, police said.

Heisey was booked for investigation of threatening to kill the woman, two counts of felony harassment for threats on officers, resisting arrest, obstructing a law officer and interfering with a health care facility. The case has been turned over to the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.