Evan J. Cole was expecting to get a job. Instead, he got ar-rested.
Cobleskill Police apprehended the man accused of injuring offi-cers two weeks ago in an unex-pected arrest Thursday at the Price Chopper supermarket in Cobleskill.
Police charged Mr. Cole with assault, resisting arrest and other counts stemming from an inci-dent June 13, when a victim com-plained to police that Mr. Cole and another man threatened him.
Officers arrested the other man, but Mr. Cole struggled with police. In the scuffle, one officer suffered a fractured finger, and the other officer had contusions, abrasions and a pulled muscle.
Mr. Cole escaped, and police have been looking for him since.
He turned up at Price Chop-per, waiting to begin orientation for a job.
Store manager Mike Suchy said he had hired Mr. Cole be-fore the June 13 incident, but he hadn’t started working yet.
“He told me he had grocery experience, and I checked that out,” Mr. Suchy said.
At 2:45 pm Thursday, Coble-skill Police, working an anony-mous tip, called Mr. Suchy to inquire whether Mr. Cole was at the store.
Orientation was set for 3pm, and new hires, Mr. Cole among them, were in Price Chopper’s café area.
“I told police I’d check his name, and I did,” Mr. Suchy said. “I made sure it was him, and then I called the police back.”
Officers arrived and arrested Mr. Cole just before the store’s orientation.
Other store employees said they identified Mr. Cole from the photo on the front page of last week’s Times-Journal, which was in a nearby news rack.
Chief Travis said Mr. Cole was not armed and stopped short of describing him as dangerous.
“But due to the circumstances surrounding the original com-plaint and his actions when he dealt with officers, he could have been,” Chief Travis said.
After Mr. Cole escaped June 13, Cobleskill Police mounted a search and were joined by the State Police, SUNY Cobleskill Police and Schoharie County Sheriff’s deputies.
The search also involved au-thorities in Fulton and Mont-gomery counties, where police believe Mr. Cole might have fled.
Police charged Mr. Cole with second-degree assault, a Class D felony; second-degree menacing, second-degree obstructing gov-ernmental administration and resisting arrest, all Class A felo-nies.
He was ordered held in the Schoharie County Jail in lieu of $7,500 cash bail, $15,000 bond and was to return to Cobleskill Village Court last night.
His accomplice, Andrew J. Hilts, was charged with second-degree criminal contempt, a Class A misdemeanor, after the June 13 incident.
The two officers injured in the fight were treated at Cobleskill Regional Hospital and released.