A local transient was arrested Monday afternoon after a 52-year-old Odessa woman called 911 from her locked pickup truck to say she’d been threatened by a man with a knife.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, the woman told police she was cutting weeds in a parking lot near Lettie Lee Avenue and East Eighth Street around 2 p.m. when a man later identified as William Arnett, 57, began yelling at her from across the street.
Arnett continued to yell at her as he crossed the street and approached her with an unfolded pocket knife down at his side, the woman told police. Fearing for her life, she ran to her Ford F-150, got in, locked the door and called 911 and her husband, who drove to the scene.
The woman’s husband told police Arnett was near the pickup truck holding a knife when he arrived, but then walked away, according to the report.
An OPD officer reported that when he approached Arnett, Arnett placed the knife on the ground with the blade tucked into the handle.
The officer described Arnett as “extremely belligerent.”
Arnett was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and public intoxication. As of Wednesday, he remained in the Ector County jail on two surety bonds totaling $25,312.
