Elderly man accused of threatening Utica officer with cane
Posted: 02.17.2012 at 8:16 AM
Allen Coleman  / Courtesy: Utica police
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UTICA -- An elderly man in Utica is accused of threatening a police officer with a cane.

The officer was patrolling the area of the North Utica Shopping Center when he saw a man in the laundromat. The officer knew the man, 73-year-old Allen Coleman, of Herkimer Road, was forbidden from being on the property due to past problems. When the officer tried to arrest him, Coleman allegedly took off, running out the back door of the laundromat. The officer drove around the back of the store and approached him again. That's when, police say, Coleman raised his metal cane and started swinging it at the officer, threatening to kill him.

Coleman allegedly took off again and locked himself inside a car. Police say he refused to get out, then later ran off behind a building. They later found him hiding behind a dumpster.

Coleman is charge with trespass, menacing, resisting arrest and criminal possession of a weapon.