This article has been updated to include new information from the Arcata Police Department.

A man rushed the city councilmembers at last night’s meeting of the Arcata City Council before being tackled by city manager Merritt Perry and a police officer. 

The man, Shaine Haugen from Fresno, was arrested on counts of assault and battery, possession of pepper spray and a butterfly knife, resisting arrest, public intoxication, and using violent means to “deter or prevent an executive officer from performing any duty imposed upon such officer by law.”

Haugen walked into the city council meeting around the time the first public comment period started at 6:30, cradling a package wrapped in a towel: a fake molotov cocktail made from a 40 ounce bottle of malt liquor with a piece of paper stuffed in it, according to several witnesses. He also had the butt of a foam-dart shooting NERF gun sticking out of vest over his left breast, painted black to look like an actual firearm.

A police officer in the audience intercepted him and took the fake molotov away from him, but didn’t stop him before he attempted to rush up the stairs towards the councilmembers on the left side of the dais. Perry stopped him and threw him on the ground before he made it all the way up, holding Haugen there for a second before the officer subdued and arrested him. Booking records show he had pepper spray and a switchblade.

The city council resumed the meeting as normal after about 10 minutes and worked their way through the rest of the agenda.

Haugen, 36, has an extensive rap sheet. He was sentenced to a five year prison term for unlawfully driving away an automobile in Michigan in 2015, and in 2011 was charged for possession of a controlled substance in California. 

Haugen’s motives are unknown, but according to Perry was at the city council meeting in August where public commenters spent hours berating councilmembers for the city’s approach to the homeless and Gaza. 

City council meetings in the future might have increased security measures, such as metal detector wands and an increased police presence. 

Mayor Alex Stillman said in an email to the Outpost this morning that she was “concerned about civility everywhere.”

“It’s just really disappointing, the way the world is going,” Perry said in a phone interview with the Outpost this morning. “In the past, when you saw incidents happen, people would try to unite the country, but I think you see people trying to divide the country on both sides.”