Karl "Jack" Frost, who tried to make a "citizen's arrest" of a jogger last week in Gilbert, told police he struggles with "inner demons" now that he's no longer a police officer.
Frost believes he was right to restrain the 52-year-old jogger, but police arrested him after the morning dust-up on suspicion of unlawful imprisonment and other charges.
His explosive anger can be heard in a recording of the call he made to 911 while holding on to the victim. Check out the call at the bottom of this post.
As Frost explained to us last week, he was a London Metropolitan police officer for 14 years before moving to Arizona a few years ago and becoming a U.S. citizen.
In a police report obtained by New Times, Frost, 47, is quoted as telling a police officer he spent nine years in the British Special Air Services before becoming a SWAT officer in London.
"Karl told me he had been trained his entire life to meet conflict with violence, which was creating a problem now that he was a civilian," the report states. "Karl said he 'struggled with inner demons' over the ability to enforce laws as he used to."
That seems to explain a few things.
Like why Karl, who goes by "Jack," decided to confront a man for something as petty as unlawfully jogging in a bike lane. And why Frost decided to restrain the man until police arrived. And perhaps even why, in 2005, Frost ended up being Tasered by Chandler police in his home after a squabble with his wife.
Frost told us on Friday that he didn't make a citizen's arrest because the guy was jogging in a bike lane, but because the jogger "shoved" him.
However, statements by Frost in the police report and the 911 call make it clear that Frost was enraged over the fact that the man, Kevin Thompson, was running in the bike lane. According to the report, it wasn't until after Frost was arrested that he mentioned the alleged "assault" by Thompson.
Thompson, also of Chandler, could not be reached on Tuesday by New Times. His account of the incident in the police report differs quite a bit from Frost's.
Thompson told cops he'd been running south on South Islands Drive West in the northbound bike lane when Frost rode up on his bicycle from the opposite direction. He moved toward the curb to give the bicyclist "room to get by," and was surprised when Frost "attempted to run him over," the report states.
Frost then got off his bicycle "and grabbed Kevin by the throat" while raving about having friends who had been killed recently on their bikes. Thompson tried to walk away, but Frost -- who, at 6-foot-2, is taller than the victim and reportedly outweighs Thompson by 50 pounds -- "pursued" the smaller man, grabbed him, and began shouting "citizen's arrest!"
As we read the report, this part reminded us of a classic episode of the Andy Griffith Show, in which Gomer Pyle keeps yelling "citizen's arrayest, citizen's arrayest!" at Deputy Barney Fife, who had made an illegal u-turn. The difference between the real-life incident in Gilbert, though, is that Frost was really, really angry -- and armed with a .40-caliber Glock. Frost never pulled out the gun, but that's maybe only because Thompson didn't produce a weapon to defend himself. Frost told us on Friday he might have met force with equal force, had it come to that.
While preventing Thompson from walking away, Frost called police on his cell phone. As you can hear in the 911 call, he's charged up and won't obey the dispatcher, who tells him to stop arguing with Thompson and to let him go. Frost drops numerous f-bombs and yells repeatedly about the bike lane while Thompson bleats that he just wants to "move on with his day."
A witness in a nearby car told police that Thompson tried "at least 20 times" to get away from Frost, who kept "chest-bumping" the jogger.
When the cops finally showed up, they found Frost "agitated" and demanded that they "'do their job' and enforce bike-lane laws." Gilbert Officer Devon McClaws told Frost that he couldn't make a citizen's arrest for a civil offense, which made Frost "extremely upset." He accused McClaws of being "ignorant."
After he was told he was under arrest on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct and unlawful imprisonment, Frost yelled "bullshit" and said he was the one who'd been assaulted.
"Karl claimed he rode past Kevin and Kevin nudged him with his shoulder, causing him to fall off his bike," the report states. Frost added, though, that he hadn't really fallen off the bike - he'd just been forced to put a foot down. He admitted to grabbing Thompson around the neck "in a sort of headlock," then holding his arm as Thompson "was yelling at him to get away and attempting to flee by running."
Later, at the police station while getting fingerprinted, Frost calmed down and made the statement about struggling with "inner demons," the report says. Frost was booked into jail and released on bond.
He's still is ticked off at Gilbert police for arresting him and seizing his handgun. He accuses police of trying to smear him in a press release last week that mentioned his "prior felony arrest" and the possibility that he might not be allowed to own a gun.
Fact is, Frost isn't a prohibited possessor -- he even has a state-issued concealed-weapons permit, which wouldn't have been issued without a background check. He also isn't a convicted felon.
He was, however, arrested in 2005 in connection with a suspected aggravated assault on a Chandler police officer.
In that incident, Frost's wife, Alisha, called police during a heated argument with Frost. While two officers were in their home, Frost allegedly grabbed the arm of an officer and wouldn't let go, causing another cop to hit him with two five-second bursts of a Taser. Frost said he was just trying to get his identification, which was in the kitchen, and which one of the cops had asked him to retrieve.
No charges were filed in the incident. In 2007, Frost filed a federal complaint against the Chandler Police Department but later dropped the case voluntarily.
He tells New Times he's legally barred from talking about the case and why he dropped it.
Frost is sticking by his account about the jogger shoving him, and tells New Times he still feels like he was in the right.
We'll update this post if prosecutors move forward with criminal charges.
Meantime, Frost says he's disillusioned with the country he nows calls home. He says he left England because his American wife didn't want to live there. But the police here can't be trusted, he maintains.
He's right, at least sometimes, about the latter part -- but we'd still rather be arrested by a police officer, if it ever came to that..
Below: The 911 call
