New Kensington officer sidelined 3 days after being injured during man's arrest

A New Kensington police officer suffered a severe wrist sprain causing him to miss three days of work after he and two other officers ended up in fights with an Oklahoma man they had been called to check on.

According to court records, a sergeant and an officer went to Parnassus Manor on Main Street around 4:40 p.m. Thursday, where they found Klinton K. Schrader, 27, of Muskogee lying in the parking lot. Police said there was an open container of beer nearby and Schrader’s breath smelled strongly of alcohol, leading them to arrest him for public drunkenness and other offenses.

As the sergeant tried to handcuff Schrader, police said he began to pull away and said many times that he would not go back to jail. When the officer tried to use a Taser on Schrader, police say Schrader grabbed it, causing the officer to use “a reasonable amount of force” to free the Taser.

Schrader had grabbed the wrist of the officer, who after the altercation noticed “a considerable amount of swelling,” police wrote in a criminal complaint. An evaluation at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison found a severe sprain that kept him out of work for three days.

At the scene, police said Schrader spit in the sergeant’s face. Upon arriving at the police station, police said he lunged at a third officer as he was being helped out of a car.

During the second fight, police said he kicked the third officer in the thigh and had to be forcibly put into a cell, where he began screaming and berating officers.

Schrader is charged with three counts of felony aggravated assault and felony charges of assault by a prisoner and disarming a law enforcement officer; a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest; and summary charges of public drunkenness and having an open container in public.

Schrader was being held in the Westmoreland County jail on $50,000 bond. His preliminary hearing before New Kensington District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. is scheduled for Oct. 3.