A Boise man who threatened two teens during a workout at an Eagle-area gym and then smashed a front window to get away Sunday afternoon is being held in the Ada County Jail on a felony charge of malicious injury to property.
Jacob A. Roberts is also charged with a felony count of assault and battery on a law enforcement officer after he tried to bite an Eagle Police officer who was taking him to jail.
The incident resulted in a significant police presence in the shopping area northeast of the Eagle Road/Idaho 44 intersection and downtown Eagle Sunday afternoon.
Eagle police were called to a gym in the 300 block of S. Eagle Road just after 12:30 p.m. after getting a 911 call about a man armed with a knife that broke a window at the gym and was covered in blood.
When officers arrived, they found a shattered window but Roberts was not there.
They talked to a woman who told them a man, later identified as Roberts, was acting strangely and bothering two teens who were working out.
She said the teens walked by her in an attempt to get away from Roberts. The woman told officers she concerned for their safety and stood between them and Roberts, when she told him to leave the teens alone.
The woman said she and the two teens closed the door to exercise mat room and blocked it with kettle bells so Roberts couldn’t get in.
Another witness told police when Roberts couldn’t get into the mat room, he appeared to get angrier. When another witness was about to call 911 to report what was going on, Roberts tied to leave the gym but ran into the front door and fell backwards when it didn’t open.
That is when Roberts took a large knife out of his waistband, used it break a large glass window next to the door, and walked through.
More police arrived as officers began searching the area for Roberts.
They found him about a half hour later behind a restaurant in the 100 block of E. State Street and took him into custody.
Officers found a large knife under Roberts’ sweatshirt during the arrest. Paramedics treated him at the scene. Police then arrested Roberts and took him to jail.
It was when Roberts got out of the patrol car to be booked into the jail that he tried to run away. He tried to bite the officer in the bicep during the ensuing scuffle.
Roberts is set to make his initial court appearance Monday afternoon.
Other charges are possible.