Policeman aids in averting harm to 2-year-old boy

Clinton police officer Lt. Shane Harrelson spent about 20 minutes Monday night successfully talking a suspect allegedly holding a knife to the back of a 2-year-old male child into releasing the boy without seriously harming him.
The suspect is Mauricio Rodriguez Jr., 32, of Weatherford. He has been charged with two counts of child abuse and one of domestic assault and battery in the presence of a minor, all after former conviction of two or more felonies.
Besides holding the knife to the back of his 2-year-old son, Rodriguez is accused of threatening a teenage boy and roughing up their mother by violently pushing her face into a bedroom door. A third son also witnessed some or all of the events.
They were reported to have occurred at a house in the 200 block of Granite Wash.
Lieutenant Harrelson wrote the affidavit of probable cause on which the charges are based. He said he was dispatched to the address in west Clinton at 10:36 p.m. Monday.
When he arrived, he said the suspect was sitting on the side of a bed holding a small child later identified as the 2-year-old. He said that as soon as the suspect saw him, he grabbed the child, picked him up and held him to his chest.
Harrelson said he asked what’s up, whereupon Rodriguez reached under a blanket and pulled out a kitchen knife that appeared to be eight to ten inches long. He then allegedly said to the officer, “I’m gonna tell you what’s up.”
“Mauricio was holding the knife with his right hand and had it behind (the child’s) back,” wrote Harrelson. The officer said he was never threatened himself. He said he spent about 20 minutes trying to convince Rodriguez to either put the knife down or let the child go but he refused.
“Mauricio was making comments about not wanting to go to jail and that he would rather kill himself than go to jail,” said the affidavit.
Finally, the suspect relinquished the knife and handed the child over to another officer, Michael O’Kelley. He then was handcuffed, taken to a police car and eventually to jail.
Harrelson said he also met with a woman who said she was Rodriguez’s sister. She said she had received a call to come get him at 6:51 p.m. “because he was going crazy and had his son . . . in his arms.” The sister said when she arrived, he got the knife and told everyone to stay away from him. She said he was angry because he thought the woman who lived there had cheated on him. The sister also quoted him as saying it wasn’t going to end well, all while holding the knife.
The police officer met with both a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old who said they had witnessed and – in at least one case – been involved in the events. That boy said his mother and the defendant had started arguing and throwing things. He said Rodriguez broke his mother’s sunglasses and stabbed her purse.
Once, the boy continued, Rodriguez had gone outside but then come back and pushed his mother to the floor by her throat. The lad said the suspect also grabbed the knife and his 2-year-old brother, pushing the knife’s pointed end against the toddler’s back and stating that if anyone called the police he would kill the tyke and then himself.
The 16-year-old said he grabbed once for the knife but Rodriguez pointed it at him and said, “Do you really want to do this? Who do you think you are?”
Asked by Harrelson how he felt at that point, the older boy said he was scared.
The officer also met with the 14-year-old boy who reportedly told essentially the same story.
During his investigation Harrelson talked to the mother as well, and she told him Rodriguez was upset because she had talked to another man about a month earlier. Monday evening, she said she told him she was going to call the police if he didn’t leave but he refused so she called his sister.
Eventually police were called and the younger child was taken to the hospital. Harrelson said while the doctor was examining him, he could see several scratch marks that ran half the length of the child’s back. He said he could also see six to eight small red marks as if he had been poked with something.
One of the counts of child abuse is for what Rodriguez allegedly did to the 2-year-old. The other is for threats made against one of the older boys.