A 60-year-old Rancho Mirage man was arrested on assault charges after he pepper sprayed his friend’s young son and husband, who was suicidal, Maricopa Police Department reports.
George F. Schaefer was booked Aug. 22 in Pinal County jail after Maricopa police officers arrested him.
An MPD probable cause statement said police responded to a home on West San Clemente Street and found a man with large red blotches on his face and chest. Police said that his pepper-sprayed son was in the garage with his mother, who reported the incident. The mother identified Schaefer as her “friend.”
Witnesses said that the woman’s husband confronted Schaefer after he made an inappropriate comment about his wife and then retreated to his bedroom upstairs. As the man approached Schaefer’s bedroom door, Schaefer opened the door and pepper sprayed the man and his son, a minor, police said. Then, Schaefer allegedly advanced on the man with a baton.
An unidentified person pushed Schaefer away from the man he pepper sprayed, police said.
Schaefer admitted to pepper spraying the victims but said it was in self-defense after they tried to break into his bedroom. Police said the bedroom door showed no signs of forced entry to substantiate the claim.
The probable cause statement said the pepper-sprayed man was reported upstairs with a knife and acting suicidal, although he came downstairs without a knife.
Schaefer in November pleaded guilty to other violence charges in Maricopa Municipal Court. Now, he faces six months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
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