photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Richard E. Snell

A man was arrested Sunday night on suspicion of threatening another man with a knife at the Lawrence Community Shelter.

Police responded to the shelter for those experiencing homelessness just before 7 p.m. to a report of a disturbance involving a man swinging a knife at another man, said Sgt. Drew Fennelly with the Lawrence Police Department in an email. When police arrived, the disturbance had passed, but witnesses told police that a 59-year-old man had threatened a 44-year-old man with a knife. Shelter staff recovered the knife after the disturbance, Fennelly said.

The incident allegedly began after the men had a “heated verbal exchange over past personal relationships.” No injuries were reported during the incident. Police made contact with the suspect, who was believed to be “extremely intoxicated,” and arrested him. When police attempted to put the man into a patrol car, the man allegedly kicked an officer. The officer was uninjured, Fennelly said. Both men involved are longtime Lawrence residents, but it was unclear if either man is a permanent resident at the shelter, he said.

The man Richard E. Snell, 59, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and battery on an officer. The booking log indicates that Snell has an address listed in McLouth. He is being held at the Douglas County Jail without bond.

Snell has numerous felony convictions over the decades in Douglas and Johnson counties as far back as 1987 for robbery, aggravated assault and multiple counts of criminal threat, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.