The Portage Police activated its SWAT team, which used tear gas to arrest a man suspected of battering a woman.
Antoine Darrian Whiting, 43, a resident of the Willow Creek Estates apartment complex, was arrested Saturday night and charged with misdemeanor battery with injury, resisting law enforcement and interfering with the reporting of a crime.
According to police reports, officers responded to reports of a physical disturbance and found the female victim in the apartment complex’s parking lot complaining of pain and displaying “new and healing bruises under an eye” and other marks “of a physical disturbance.”
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Whiting did not respond to officers trying to talk with him at his apartment door, according to reports, and officers could hear a sound inside the apartment “consistent with the arming of a shotgun” or semi-automatic handgun.
Officers evacuated neighboring apartments and secured a “no knock” search warrant from a county judge to enter Whiting’s apartment. Officers tried to reach Whiting using a public address system outside of his bedroom window, which he later claimed he did not hear, the report said. Officers also tried repeatedly to reach Whiting’s cellphone.
Officers finally used tear gas to get Whiting out of his apartment.
According to the victim, she and Whiting were arguing and it soon escalated to a physical disturbance. The victim said she fled the apartment after Whiting allegedly destroyed her cellphone to keep her from contacting the police, the report said. The victim also demonstrated bruises police said were consistent with being hit with a hammer on her hip, back and left shoulder, and she had other scrapes and bruises, the report said.
Whiting was being held at the Porter County Jail Monday night.
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.