Cyclist’s nightmare continues
The sad Anders Swanson saga is still not over in Chattanooga, but we now got our hands on the police report from the cyclist harassment and macing incident.
As we previously reported, Anders Swanson was riding his road bike up Raccoon Mountain in Chattanooga, TN on a Saturday afternoon when he was harassed by two teens in a black pickup truck. Swanson called the authorities and had a second encounter with the accused teens as he waited for TVA security to show up. Words were exchanged, Swanson was shown the bird and the vehicle swerved at him as it took off. Swanson managed to get video footage and still images of the incident and reported what happened to Chattanooga police.
45 minutes later there was a third encounter and now Swanson was off his bike and in the process of changing out of his cycling gear in a parking lot. The accused teens now in a white Toyota 4-Runner sprayed Swanson with mace in the face.
Initially the teens admitted these actions to Chattanooga police, and one of the moms even called Swanson on Sunday afternoon to get the charges against her son dropped. For jurisdiction reasons the case was moved to Marion County and all of a sudden the accused must have changed their mind – they now said the cyclist threatened them and that they acted in self-defense.
Late on Sunday evening Swanson was called by Marion County sergeant Tim Prince who warned Swanson that he would charge him with 3 felonies if he did not take the pictures down from Facebook that showed the accused in the vehicle. But when a TVA investigator showed up at the Marion County police department on Monday morning Prince reportedly had no report or other write-up of the incident that took place 2 days earlier. So what did he even base these threats against Swanson on?
We however got our hands on the police report from the Chattanooga Police Department. The names of the accused have been redacted but the story flows without the names of the accused and nowhere in the police report did the accused state that they in any shape or form felt threatened by Anders Swanson.
The police reports states: "According to XXXXX, they left the area to meet up with friends. They got into a white 4-runner and went back to Raccoon Mountain. XXXXX states that there was no intentions of finding Mr. Swanson, they were only driving around; however, when they saw Mr. Swanson again and confirmed it was the same male in the previous altercation they exchanged words. At that time, XXXXX pulled out a can of mace and sprayed Mr. Swanson in the face. Mr. Swanson then threw a water bottle at their vehicle as they took off. XXXXX had nothing more to add to the incident."
It also seems that the young men can’t get their stories straight as to why they jumped into another car and went up the mountain again.
The police report also says: "They went up to the same area to talk to Mr. Swanson, but this time they were in a 4-runner. They saw Mr. Swanson again and approached him. They exchanged words. YYYYY then sprayed Mr. Swanson in the face with mace. They left the area in the 4-runner. YYYYY had nothing more to add to the incident. YYYYY’s parents advised he is normally a good child and does not get into trouble. They are not certain what caused this behavior. I explained to them that Marion County is investigating the incident involving the mace."
Why the Marion County police has taken more than a week to digest this police report is absolutely puzzling. Plus as we had said, Swanson has submitted video evidence that supports his case.
We now show on a map where the third encounter took place with the path of the white Toyota 4-Runner marked in yellow, and the parked vehicle spot where Swanson changed out of his clothes marked in red.
Looking at this map it seems reasonably obvious that the Toyota 4-Runner with the accused on board must have made an effort to come close to Swanson and it wasn't just some strange random encounter.
We reached out to Marion County Police today to get an updated on the case but have not yet heard back. Word though has it that they are busy with a murder investigation.
We also contacted Anders Swanson and he told us that he just got an update from Detective Hargis of Marion County via email. According to Hargis the case should be completed by Thursday. But Swanson still does not know which way it will go.
"The sad thing is that without the fine legal advice we have gotten, my wife and I would have likely dropped the charges against the teens on 3 different occasions," said Swanson. "Even though it [the pressure on Swanson] was completely based on those fabricated and false charges they were making and that is sad. The most disturbing thing here is – if that had been someone else who didn't have people step up and say 'hey I give you some advice' – it disappears. And then this kids are off scot-free."
