photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

A Lawrence Police Department patrol vehicle is pictured June 28, 2022.

Lawrence police used two stun guns Tuesday night to subdue a man who was allegedly damaging cars with a rock at a Lawrence hotel.

The man, Carlos Garcia Gaspar, 42, of Kansas City, Missouri, was charged in Douglas County District Court with three felony counts of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, two felony counts of criminal damage and one felony count of obstruction in connection with an incident that occurred just before midnight on Tuesday. The man is alleged to have damaged a window of the hotel and a vehicle, according to charging documents.

Police were called around 11:50 p.m. to the Tru by Hilton, a hotel at 510 Wakarusa Drive, where an employee had reported a man was in the parking lot damaging vehicles with a rock and swinging a belt, said Lawrence Police Department spokesperson Laura McCabe. The man was speaking in Spanish, and the first officer on scene attempted to give the man commands to “stop” and to put his “hands up” in Spanish but the man did not comply, McCabe said.

The man continued to hit a car with the rock and waved the rock in the air toward the officers as he evaded police by moving between vehicles in the parking lot, McCabe said. After attempting to issue additional commands for the man to stop, an officer deployed his stun gun, but it was not effective and the man continued to act in a threatening manner, McCabe said.

An officer who is fluent in Spanish arrived on the scene and attempted to issue a command to stop, drop the weapon and step away from the vehicle with his hands in the air, but the man refused the order, and an officer deployed a second stun gun, which allowed officers to take the man into custody, McCabe said.

During his first court appearance on Thursday, Gaspar was given a $15,000 cash or surety bond by Judge Blake Glover. He is next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 14 for a status update.