A man causing damage to vehicles and stopping traffic whilst proclaiming ‘Winston Churchill, silly arsehole’ has been arrested by Police – but not before coming face to face with a bystander carrying a chainsaw.
The incident began shortly before 19:40 when a male was seen to be acting with crazed aggression and causing damage to cars with a belt on Union Street in the town. He was shouting ‘Winston Churchill, silly f***ing arsehole’ whilst standing in the middle of the road, stopping traffic from passing.
Although not making much sense, the man armed with the belt also claimed that someone had stolen his jacket.
A utility worker confronted the out-of-control man with a chainsaw in a non-aggressive way in a bid to control the situation and prevent any members of the public from being harmed, whilst trying to move the Churchill-hater on.
Island Echo understands that an arrest has since been made on the Esplanade with 1 male taken into custody at Newport Police Station for questioning.
UPDATE @ 23:45 – An eyewitness has told Island Echo that the incident – which was partially captured on video by a bystander – continued for approximately 20-30 minutes before the man was confronted.
It’s understood that members of the public began efforts to control the situation whilst awaiting police attendance.
The eyewitness told Island Echo:
“The incident went on for between 20-30 minutes with no police at all and attempts from other members of the public trying to stop the man.”
“I think fair play to the gentleman with the chainsaw. Albeit slightly unusual the situation was defused and he then walked the man away and the situation ended.”
UPDATE WEDNESDAY – Police have confirmed that a 46-year-old man has been arrested.
In a statement, Hampshire Constabulary has said:
“We were called at 7.12pm with reports of a disturbance in Union Street, Ryde, during which damage was caused to a car.
“A man was subsequently stopped and arrested by police on Ryde Esplanade.
“The 46-year-old was arrested on suspicion of common assault and criminal damage.
“He remains in custody at this time.
“No further arrests have been made”.
He was also shouting insulting homophobic slurs which were much worse than insulting winston Churchill. The town was full of drunks pouring out the pubs after the football game, running amongst traffic carrying pints of beer peeing in doorways etc Until this incident was reported not one single police officer was anywhere to be seen then suddenly 7 police officers including armed response unit to deal with one prisoner whilst the drunk football hooligans were rampaging through the town. Really !!!
I wonder where the police will be at kicking out time tonight , kebab shop ?
Come on England !!!!!!!!!
Don’t blame football, it’s just pissed up dickheads who happen to be on a bender caus the footballs on.
He’s been on the old dust lol !!!
Saw this geezer , came in a pub that I was in . Was ejected. Clearly something major was wrong with the idiot. Never saw any other other problem in Ryde. Dont blame all supporters of football in the same frame please!
Is he an idiot or was they’re something majorly wrong with him then?
To think we all had in increase in the police precept on our council tax this year… why ???
Behave yourself, Football hooligans!? Nobody was rampaging through the streets of Ryde. Get a grip, seriously. A few people happy that England won singing having a laugh does not constitute a riot. However this guy was abusive and it did take the police a while to attend. That was disappointing.
Seems like normal behaviour in Ryde these days.!!
well no police on the streets, no street cleaning, weeds growing every where ,but council tax has gone up its a disgrace really wheres all the money going i wonder
He doesn’t look like your typical England fan at all. No football shirt on in that pic. Druggie no doubt. Well done to the utility worker.
This island, in fact, the world is just getting worse by the day. I would say a lot of ‘people’ are behaving worse than animals, but that is an insult to the animal world. All I will say in addition to this, is that this world is fast becoming a very unpleasant place to live.
Not every country in the world is like this one. If I was able to live anywhere else I’d live in Japan. From everything I’ve seen and heard, the citizens there are respectful and courteous and have respect for their surroundings and don’t want to do anything that may upset others, the complete opposite to the attitudes of too many people over here and in other western nations.
Yer , jog on mate , if you like eating live gold fish and sleeping on the floor and treating your boss like a god! I hear that there is 0% crime in North Korea?
Hear hear.
Why were the Police not visible in Ryde Town Centre? They can be present and friendly, why do they only appear after an incident has occurred? Surely if they were seen incidents might be avoided from happening. This must be an island method of policing!!!!! The guy in the photo looks a bit crazy to me, no not the one with chain saw.
20-30 minutes before police arrived? Brilliant service what if this was a knife attack on public police need to respond faster. You could WALK from the police station in ryde to that location in about 5 minutes what took them so long?
You think the police station is full off police officers waiting to go out to calls? The handful that are on duty on the island at any time are generally spread across the island dealing with other incidents that you’ll never hear about.
Give them a break!
Was the police looking out for drivers not wearing seat belts. Yes an offence but i wonder how many were deployed on this task Believe it or not I’m on their side. They need more copers in the team. After all we have paid more this year in our council tax for them, haven’t we ???
How many ‘seatbelt offences’ have to be ignored as they’re on their way to actual ‘crime’ jobs?
They’re not Traffic Cops primarily, they respond to emergency calls, but quickly run out of police officers when there’s a couple of jobs running simultaneously which is most of the time.
When you see a police car they’re generally going to a job, even if it’s not a blue-light run it still has to have a response time.
They’re pretty much occupied with work most of their day, and more..
Yes we need more police on the streets, it would be nice to see bobbies on foot around the place looking for work but people should lobby the ministers, not cop-bash continually.
How come in 20 minutes however an Aru artived? They are usually based on the mainland… In the station as well watching football?
Island based actually, if they’re in Cowes at the time of a call how long do you think t takes to get to Ryde safely?
Give them a break? No way they have enough of them
They where probably watching the football
The police didnt arrive for about an hour or so by which time the situation had been calmed down and the loon had gone down the sea front where they collected him.
Why keep mentioning the chainsaw. It was just something the decent guy happened to be carrying for work purposes. There’s someone in the background with a shopping bag. Ooo I wonder what’s in the bag??
Im amazed that none of the apologists for criminals are not on here bleating about the fact the guy carrying the chainsaw was not arrested for even daring to speak to the cretin, it seems to be the way nowdays when it comes to certain criminal elements.
Police station 30 seconds away ?! Where are they all ?!
At the job centre. The Tories laid then all off. Instead of giving our tax money to big business, sending over seas or giving it to the ruling elite, what about supporting the people who pay the tax.
The world is going mad
If he had damaged my car i may of accidentally slipped with the chainsaw
Stuff the police, we all know they’re useless.
We need more people like the utility worker, not afraid to make a stand and end a situation. Chainsaw or not, he took a risk in confronting a maniac. Well done fella! Thankyou