Paintsville man arrested after stabbing city officer

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

PAINTSVILLE — Paintsville police officer Tyler Cable was stabbed when he responded to a complaint of a man inside Ollie’s who appeared to be under the influence of something.

Justin M. Fields, 31, of Paintsville, is charged with second-degree fleeing or evading police on foot; menacing; public intoxication of a controlled substance, excluding alcohol; second-degree disorderly conduct; resisting arrest; first-degree assault of a police officer; first-degree wanton endangerment of a police officer; theft by unlawful taking. and drug paraphernalia-buy/possess.

According to the arrest report, when Cable arrived at the department store, Fields was eating some peanuts inside of the store when the officer approached him.

Fields had “very slurred speech” when he started talking to Cable, who noticed that Fields’ eyes were blood shot and glossy, the report said.

“When I told Fields to turn around and place his left hand behind his back, that is when he had a knife in his right hand wrapped up in the peanut package and I didn’t know,” Cable said in the report. “That is when he turned around and stabbed me in the top of my right arm. I then pushed Fields off me to get distance from me and him.”

Cable said in the report that Fields fell into some boxes that were in the middle of the store and then started running from him out the door.

“I deployed my taser into Fields’ back,” Cable said in the report. “Fields fell into the floor.”

Cable and the District 2 constable was telling Fields to put his hands behind his back and to quit resisting arrest again, the report said, and they finally got him detained.

“After checking my right arm because it was burning my uniform, it had a small puncture to it and that is when CD-2 found the knife laying in the floor inside of the store that he had used to stab me with,” Cable said in the report. “When searching Fields, he had a needle that he stated he did meth with before he walked inside of the store. Fields and I were both medically cleared at Paintsville ARH.”

Fields, who also had a warrant for a probation violation, was lodged in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville.