Bath salts, a designer drug that causes people to trip out, can apparently take average criminals and turn them into super-powered criminals with a penchant for violence.
According to the Mesa Police Department, bath salts seem to be giving criminals "unusual strength," particularly when they are confronted by cops.
In fact, in the past week, Mesa police officers based out of the Red Mountain Precinct have encountered three criminals -- all of whom were under the influence of bath salts -- who demonstrated "unusual strength" and violence.
The latest is an unidentified burglary suspect, who required eight cops to subdue him after he broke into a car in the 500 block of North Maple Drive earlier today.
Police responded to a burglary in progress call about 6 a.m. today at
533 North Maple Drive in Mesa. When police arrived, they found the
suspect locked in a vehicle, "acting erratically moving from the back
seat to the front seat in a manic manner."
At one point, the suspect
opened one of the vehicle's doors wide enough to throw soda cans at the
responding officers -- hitting none of them.
Police continued to order the man to exit the vehicle, and he continued to refuse.
At
one point, the suspect pulled out a putty knife as he pulled wires from
the dash of the vehicle. When police used a key to try and access the
vehicle, the suspect would jump to whichever door they were trying to
access and hold it closed.
The cops managed to open one of the
doors wide enough to stick a Taser inside the car and zap the suspect.
He was removed from the vehicle and continued to resist arrest --
despite having been zapped by the cops' Taser.
Mesa police say it took a total of eight officers to subdue the suspect, one of whom suffered an injury to his wrist.
It
was later determined the suspect was under the influence of bath salts.
He was taken to Banner Gateway Medical Center, and will likely face
charges when he's released.
Again, Mesa police stress that this is
the third incident in the past week where cops have had to deal with an
alleged criminal under the influence of bath salts who seemed to have
"unusual strength."
Mesa Detective Steve Berry tells New Times the identity of the suspect has not yet been released likely because he has not been processed yet. Check back for updates.