Homeless Man Threatened To Slash Concord Restaurant Owner: Report
CONCORD, NH — A homeless man, who has been arrested dozens and dozens of times during the past two decades, is facing a felony threat charge after being accused of pulling a saw blade on a Downtown Concord business owner.
Police were sent to The Draft on South Main Street around 7 p.m. on March 25 for a report of a man pulling a weapon and threatening the owner, Andy Sanborn, after refusing to leave the area after about 20 minutes of screaming at customers and others. The first arriving officer spoke to Sanborn, who said a man had been screaming outside the restaurant and charity casino. When he asked him to move along, the man came up to him, pulled out what appeared to be a knife with a black, wrapped handle, about 7 inches long, and said, “I’ll cut you” and then, “I’ll cut your f------ throat.”
The man then grabbed his bicycle and grocery cart and walked north on South Main Street.
The man was described as about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with light skin, possibly blue eyes, and wearing a camouflage jacket.
The officer eyed security video from outside the restaurant and said the man was also wearing boots and an orange undershirt.
“I observed the individual turn toward Andy and walk directly over to him, in an aggressive manner,” the officer said while watching the video. “The individual got approximately within arm’s reach from Andy and appeared to be yelling at him before taking out a black metallic object in their left hand ... in the direction of Andy and waved it in a side-to-side motion.”
A sergeant and two other officers searched the area and found Patrick Stephen Walsh, 62, a homeless man now located in Concord, at Storrs Street and Hills Avenue. One of the officers confirmed Walsh matched the description of the man in the video, an affidavit said.
The reporting officer went to speak to Walsh and accused him of being “noticeably intoxicated” and “slurring his speech,” a report said. He admitted to being in front of The Draft recently but denied threatening anyone, the officer wrote.
“Patrick’s appearance looked identical to the video footage of the man I watched threaten Andy Sanborn,” the affidavit said.
The officer patted Walsh down and found a piece of metal — and black and silver saw blade, sticking out of his pocket, with a black shoelace attached to it, matching the weapon seen on the video, an affidavit said.
A warrant was issued for Walsh’s arrest. He was arrested by Franklin police on criminal threatening and felon in possession of a dangerous weapon on March 28. Concord police charged him on March 31 with criminal threatening. Walsh was held in preventive detention. He is due back in Merrimack County Superior Court for a dispositional conference hearing on June 29.
According to superior court records and posts on Patch, Walsh has been arrested dozens of times on various charges including second-degree assault, simple assault, criminal threatening, felon in possession, resisting arrest, breach of bail, many criminal trespass counts, disorderly conduct, drug possession, contempt, receiving stolen property, theft, open container, consumption of liquor on private property, using tobacco in non-use areas, violation of probation and parole, and warrants. He is a felon due to drug convictions in 2000 in both Boscawen and Concord.
Editor's note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Concord Police Department and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the removal request process for New Hampshire Patch police reports.
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This article originally appeared on the Concord Patch
