Cape Girardeau man charged with fleeing, attempting to disarm an officer

After allegedly fleeing from police in mid-April, a 24-year-old Cape Girardeau man now faces additional charges for attempting to disarm an officer and resisting arrest.

The first set of charges against the suspect, Deion Phillips, stem from an April 19 call in the 1100 block of Cousin Street.

Deion Phillips

According to a probable-cause statement written by Cape Girardeau police patrolman Josiah Mehl, a domestic disturbance was reported at 4:13 p.m. as a fight involving a man with a woman in a chokehold.

Mehl stated he arrived to find a man and woman fighting, but not yelling. According to the probable-cause statement, the man, later identified to be Phillips, ignored orders to stop and began running east.

After an unsuccessful attempt to stop the suspect using his department issued Taser X26, Mehl pursued Phillips behind residences in the 400 block of South Hanover Street before losing sight of him.

Police established a perimeter surrounding a house near the intersection of Cousin Street and South Henderson Avenue about 10 minutes later, but the suspect was not located.

The first arrest warrant, filed by Cape Girardeau County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Angel Woodruff, charged Phillips with one Class D felony count of second-degree domestic assault and one Class E felony count of resisting arrest for actions related to the April 19 call.

According to a second probable-cause statement, Phillips allegedly committed additional offenses during the execution of the arrest warrant.

In a separate probable-cause statement, Cape Girardeau police patrolman Shane Bourbon stated he was contacted at about 1 p.m. April 30 by K-9 officer Jonathan Brotz regarding Phillips standing near a residence in the 400 block of South Benton Street.

Bourbon stated he approached the residence from the rear and was rounding a corner when the suspect observed the officer and began to flee west across the street.

According to his probable-cause statement, Bourbon pursued Phillips north through an alleyway between the 400 blocks of South Benton and South Hanover streets. Phillips then attempted to gain entry into a residence, Bourbon stated.

After an unsuccessful Taser deployment, Bourbon stated he grabbed the fleeing suspect in an attempt to keep him from entering the residence.

“Phillips continued to resist, so I attempted to deliver a drive stun to Phillips upper right leg,” Bourbon stated, “Phillips then began to grab my taser with his left hand while attempting to pull away using an elderly gentleman as leverage to attempt to flee over the side of the porch.”

Additional orders to unhand the Taser were refused until K-9 officer Brotz arrived with his K-9 unit, Jango, and began to give orders to Phillips to stop resisting, according to the April 30 probable-cause statement.

A second warrant, also filed by Woodruff, charges Phillips with an additional Class E felony count of resisting arrest and one Class E felony count of attempting to disarm an officer during an arrest.

Phillips is being held by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Office on two $25,000 cash-only bonds.