Oakdale Man Charged with Trying to Disarm Officer

An Oakdale man faces charges for allegedly grabbing a Washington County Sheriff’s deputy’s gun and threatening to kill him, according to a Washington County District Court Complaint.

William J. Blackstock, 52, is charged with making terroristic threats and attempted disarming of a police officer in connection with an incident that took place at a Mahtomedi home the afternoon of Feb. 28, the complaint says.

According to the criminal complaint:

A Washington County Sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to a Mahtomedi home on a report that a man had fallen down the stairs. When the officer got there, he found Blackstock flailing his arms and pushing a 76-year-old woman at the house.

He was bleeding from his face and hands, intoxicated and agitated. The woman said he had arrived at the home in a cab.

Blackstock sat down, but then got agitated again when an ambulance arrived. The sheriff’s deputy and the ambulance crew were able to walk him to the ambulance using an arm bar restraint, but he grabbed the shirt of one of the ambulance crew members and began to struggle with the crew once he was placed on a gurney. As the sheriff’s deputy got into the ambulance to help hold Blackstone on the gurney. This was when Blackstock allegedly gripped the deputy’s gun and threatened to kill the officer. The deputy punched Blackstock, who allegedly continued to yell profanities and threatened to grab the deputy’s gun and kill him.

He was eventually restrained and transported to Regions Hospital.

He is charged with making terroristic threats, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and $10,000 in fines and attempting to disarm a peace officer, which carries a maximum sentence of two-and-a-half years in prison and $5,000 in fines.

His next appearance in court is scheduled May 9.