BY ART BUKOWSKI
abukowski@record-eagle.com
TRAVERSE CITY — The National Cherry Festival ended with a drunken, drugged-up bang for local police, who handled a host of disturbances as the event wound to a close.
But officers are glad they didn't have to contend with much more than minor incidents and hooliganism throughout the hot, crowded week.
"It was hectic at times, and it's always a load off our minds when it is over, and we haven't had any major events," Traverse City police Capt. Steve Morgan said.
Officers went to Bay Hill Apartments at about 8 a.m. Saturday to break up a scuffle between two men, and found that one of them, 20, from Suttons Bay, had driven into several parked cars in the Bay Hill parking lot.
The Suttons Bay man attempted to run away when confronted, and the other man tackled and tried to hold him until police arrived. The Suttons Bay man was arrested for drunken driving.
Police at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday rounded up a man described as being "disorderly" near residences on Second Street. The man, 22, earned a trip to jail after police allegedly found marijuana on him.
An hour later, a bicyclist suffered head trauma after he struck a parked car as he rode west on Front Street. He was thrown from his bike and was treated at Munson Medical Center.
Officers went to Bootlegger's bar on Union Street at 12:30 a.m. Sunday after an Alpena man said he was assaulted. A stranger walked up and struck him for no reason, Morgan said.
"It was just a random, walk-up-and-pop-the-guy thing," he said. The suspect in that incident, 26, was jailed for assault.
An officer saw a Traverse City woman, 21, drive her vehicle the wrong way down State Street and hit another vehicle just before 3 a.m. Sunday. She tried to drive away, but was stopped and arrested for drunken driving and possession of marijuana.
No one was injured in the crash.
