Police: Man calls firefighter racial slur, hits him with cane

A Diehlstadt, Missouri, man called a firefighter a racial slur and assaulted him with his cane when he tried to enter his house that was on fire, police say.

Scott County sheriff’s deputies arrested Douglas Eugene Pullen, 60, on Friday.

The Scott County prosecuting attorney’s office charged Pullen with first-degree assault of a firefighter and felony armed criminal action. First-degree assault of a firefighter is a class A felony; if convicted, Pullen would face a minimum prison term of 10 years.

Charleston, Missouri, firefighters were working to extinguish the fire about 4 p.m. Friday at 73 County Road 360, Charleston Department of Public Safety chief Robert Hearnes said.

Charleston covers fire protection for the Diehlstadt area, while the Scott County Sheriff’s Department provides law enforcement, Hearnes said.

Pullen walked through the front yard and tried to walk into the door of the residence that was engulfed in flames, Hearnes said.

A sergeant with the Charleston firefighting unit asked Pullen to “please get back”; Pullen responded by calling the sergeant the n-word, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in the case by Scott County sheriff’s detective Barry Morgan.

Pullen then hit the sergeant in the right shoulder with a wooden cane, Morgan wrote.

The sergeant grabbed onto Pullen to present further injuries, and DPS officer Wesley McDermott tackled Pullen and brought him to the ground, Hearnes said.

“I know people’s emotions when everything is burning up.

“People, when they’re distraught, do different things,” Hearnes said. “I’ve never had anybody say before, ‘I don’t want assistance from your officer because he’s black.’”

The fire sergeant was not identified in the probable-cause statement.

Morgan had been treating a man with a large laceration to his hand at the fire scene when he was approached by Hearnes, according to the statement.

DPS officers had handcuffed Pullen, and he was seated on the ground, Morgan wrote.

When Morgan transported Pullen, Pullen again called the sergeant the n-word and said he would have beaten him if he were not disabled.

Hearnes described Pullen’s actions as an isolated incident.

He said Pullen was a temporary distraction from putting out the fire and called the incident “just kind of strange.”

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: 73 County Highway 360, Diehlstadt, MO