Man charged after brawl with police at Waynesboro Rutter's

A man remains in jail following a fight with police officers this week outside the Rutter's in Waynesboro. 

Police responding to a report of a drunk and disorderly subject at the store at 141 S. Potomac St. encountered a man wearing a construction vest and no shirt praying in a van. Within minutes, it evolved into a brawl that ended with the man and two officers injured, Waynesboro police wrote in the charging document. 

Now, Nicholas Wyatt Rowe, 27, is charged with felony aggravated assault and attempted escape, and misdemeanor simple assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, court records show. Police also charged him with DUI. 

He remained in Franklin County Jail on $75,000 bail as of Friday. 

Police arrived at the store just after 4:30 p.m. Wednesday after getting a call about a man harassing employees and repeatedly asking people how to travel west, the charging document states. 

The man, Rowe, was sitting in a white van when police arrived. He had his arm around another man and was saying a prayer. 

Rowe's red, bloodshot and glassy eyes caught an officer's attention. Rowe asked the officer if he wanted to pray and moved in closer. Asked if he had any weapons, Rowe said "I don't know if I do, but I'm a Marine." 

The officer approached Rowe and told him he was being detained. As the officer tried to cuff his wrist, Rowe pulled away, spun around and punched another officer in the left eye, according to the charging document. 

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Police then grabbed Rowe and the group fell into a trash can and onto the ground, the document states. After Rowe attempted to punch one officer in the face, the other successfully reciprocated. As Rowe "actively and violently resisted," an officer punched him in the rib to get him to comply.

Police were able to handcuff Rowe after threatening to tase him. 

Two Franklin County sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene. Rowe screamed vulgarities and called police a racial slur several times, the charging document states. 

After he tried to get on his feet, an officer kneed him twice in the lower back area and told him to stop resisting. 

EMS was called to the scene to treat Rowe and the two police officers, who all sustained minor injuries from their scuffle. As EMS personnel and two other police officials who came to the scene were attempting to talk to Rowe and calm him down, he pulled his pants down and announced he has "anal herpes," according to the charging document. 

As Rowe continued to resist and scream vulgar things, authorities picked him up and belted him onto a gurney. The officer who filed the charging document wrote, "Rowe had a particular disdain for me and attempted to kick me."

Rowe's behavior didn't end once he got to Waynesboro Hospital, police said. The officer who escorted him there said he complained to a nurse that "he was a Marine and six of his family members were Hagerstown police officers," and that he got arrested after driving two blocks from his home, the document states. 

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Back at Rutter's, police spoke to several witnesses who described various parts of the situation and what led up to it. Some described Rowe stumbling around in the store and asking them "how to go west," and another described seeing Rowe swing at police after they attempted to handcuff him. 

Police also talked to the man Rowe was with when they first arrived. He said Rowe just came up to him and asked him to say a prayer. He added Rowe smelled of alcohol, and pointed to a can on the ground he had been drinking from. 

Rowe's preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday.