photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

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

Police detained a man allegedly involved in a domestic dispute after he was found walking in the middle of Kansas Highway 10, forcing traffic to swerve around him.

Officers were called around 10 a.m. Friday to 3250 Michigan St. about a “disturbed man with a bat,” according to a social media post by Lawrence police. The first officer on scene learned that the man had left Michigan Street, which is near the South Lawrence Trafficway portion of K-10, but the officer spotted him on the Lawrence Loop walking westbound.

The man eventually made it onto the K-10 roadway, where traffic managed to avoid hitting him. Officers tried to talk to the man, but he continued walking on the road. As dispatchers worked to shut down the roadway, a semi-truck driver turned to block oncoming traffic and “officers were able to safely deploy a Taser for the man’s own safety,” the post said.

The man was checked out by medics, taken to LMH Health, then to the Douglas County Jail.

The jail booking log identified the man as John Ross Wolford, 40, of Lawrence. He was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage to property, domestic battery, interference with duties of a police officer and violating a protection order.

The person who initially called the police was not physically injured, according to the release.

Wolford was on probation at the time of this incident. He had been convicted in June of aggravated battery, a felony, and was sentenced in August to eight months, which was suspended to 18 months of probation. Court records indicate that he was on felony bond at the time that crime was committed.