Man arrested after causing damage with a machete and making threats in Mecosta County

MECOSTA COUNTY, Mich. – A man was arrested Saturday for using a machete to damage property and threaten people.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, troopers from the Michigan State Police Mount Pleasant Post and officers from the Mecosta County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a man with a machete at Green Township Hall in Paris. When they arrived at the scene, they found that the man with the machete had smashed the glass in the hall’s front door, then opened a side door and gained entry into the building where a graduation ceremony was taking place.

The man began waving the machete while saying, “Everyone would go to hell.” Three people from the graduation party confronted the man and pushed him out of the building with a chair.

The man left before officers arrived and drove onto the lawn of the Mecosta County Sheriff’s Office. A correctional officer contacted him and the man began threatening the officer with the machete. Officers from the Big Rapids Police Department arrived at the scene and both the correctional officer and city police were able to subdue the man.

The 36-year-old Hersey man is being held in the Mecosta County Jail on multiple felony charges.

No one was injured in either incident.

The Mecosta County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the correctional officer incident and the MSP Mount Pleasant Post is investigating the graduation incident.