Officers said the man barricaded himself in his home, attacked them verbally and physically and tried to set his house afire.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published March 6, 2004
LARGO - Some of the first things out the window were the butter knives.
But police say Thomas J. Purdy was just getting started. Sharper utensils were on the way.
Largo police were summoned to Purdy's home Thursday evening after his pregnant girlfriend called 911 to report a domestic dispute. When officers arrived, they found Purdy barricaded in his home and threatening suicide. He then broke the windows and started throwing knives, beer bottles and chunks of glass at officers, police said.
A SWAT team eventually broke through a back door of the home to take Purdy into custody, but not before he placed rags on his stove, igniting a fire that sent smoke throughout the home as officers made the arrest, police said.
"This guy is just not nice," said Officer Gary Lange.
Purdy was taken to Morton Plant Hospital, then booked into the Pinellas County Jail on counts of arson, aggravated assault and resisting arrest. Bail was set at $80,500, which Purdy had not posted as of Friday evening.
The incident began just after 6 p.m. with the call to 911. The unidentified girlfriend was outside the home at 1907 Canterbury Lane when officers arrived. Officers who looked in the windows, however, saw that Purdy, 27, did not plan on coming out peacefully.
Sofas and tables and chairs were braced against the front entrance.
"He basically had everything that wasn't tied down in front of the door," Lange said.
Purdy's girlfriend said he had been drinking all day, had become violent and was destroying the house. She also said he had threatened to kill himself with a saw, Lange said.
Officers decided they needed to get Purdy out of the home to determine if he should be hospitalized. But their attempts to speak with him were met with curse words and racial slurs directed at an African-American officer, Lange said.
"We're trying to be nice," Lange said. "It's not working."
Purdy, whose nickname is Sparky, broke a bottle on the windowsill, cutting his hand. He broke out the windows and tossed the bottles, glass and knives - including several sharp ones - at officers.
"Whatever he could chuck out the window, whatever he could get ahold of - he did," Lange said.
Officers summoned the SWAT team, which burst through a rear sliding-glass door and hit Purdy with a taser. Using a fire extinguisher from a police car, officers extinguished the blaze Purdy had started on the stove. The fire was contained to the kitchen after the fire department finished it off, Lange said.
Officers strapped Purdy to a stretcher and hit him with the taser three to four more times on the way to the hospital, Lange said.
"He was struggling, fighting, cussing, spitting," the officer said.
Purdy was taken to Morton Plant Hospital and treated for his wounds, but continued to struggle and was hit again with the taser.
One the way to the jail, he thrashed around in the back seat and slammed his head against the window. Officers tasered him again, then squirted him with pepper spray.
"This gentleman was just full of hatred," Lange said. "He was threatening to kill everyone he could get ahold of."
Lange said officers showed a lot of restraint during the violent call. Two officers suffered minor cuts to their hands.
"We don't want to take a human life, but it almost came to whether it was going to be him or us," said Lange, a two-year veteran. "This right here is probably the worst I've ever dealt with. He was really bad. Thank God none of us got hurt."
