Portland cops back off from man pounding on restaurant door to give him 'space.' Soon he breaks door with 'grapefruit'-sized rock; staff hide in freezer.

Portland police said officers responded to a report of someone pounding on the door of a restaurant in the 1500 block of Northeast 103rd Avenue just before 1 a.m. Thursday.

The restaurant's dining room was closed, police said, but employees still were working the drive-through.

Police officers — along with an Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team officer who specializes in crisis communication — tried talking to the man, police said.

"The ECIT officer used de-escalation techniques including giving the man time and space," police wrote in their report. "He remained uncooperative, so officers backed out and monitored from a distance."

Oops

Soon the man broke the restaurant's glass door using a rock "roughly the size of a grapefruit" and got inside the establishment, police said.

With that, employees hid in a freezer room to get away from the man, police said.

Cops chased the suspect inside, but he barricaded himself in a break room, police added.

So officers evacuated employees and got down to negotiating with the man, the police report said.

"After a lengthy communication period, an officer used a sledgehammer to break a window to allow another officer to deploy pepper spray," the report added.

At that point police said the suspect surrendered.

What happened to the suspect?

Police said Anthony Bellamy, 38, was treated medically and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of second-degree burglary, first-degree criminal mischief — both felonies — and second-degree disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

According to the jail, Bellamy was booked just before 3:30 a.m. Thursday and released by court order the same day with no bail.

During the incident, an officer was cut with broken glass, police said, adding that he was treated and released from a hospital.

How did folks react?

Twitter users reacting to the news were none too pleased with Portland police:

• "The police in Portland are useless," one commenter said.
• "Criminal privilege," another user declared.
• "Give him 'space'?" another commenter asked. "This is the police force that the moronic leftists want. Counselors to use the warm, fuzzy approach to hardened criminals. Even if they are forced to arrest them, they have a fund to pay their bail. What nation can survive without LEOs to enforce its laws?"
• Mocking the police report's description of the officers' tactics, another commenter suggested "Americans should slowly back away from paying taxes."