Following his leap over the post office counter on Saturday, December 3, Detroit man Isaac Pettiford was before District Court Judge Gregory Ross for his arraignment two days later, on Monday, December 5.
Pettiford, identified in court documents as age 46, had intended to assault workers, only to be tackled and detained by one of his would-be victims. He is charged with two counts of assault or assault and battery, as well as one count of breaking and entering illegally, all three of which are misdemeanor charges.
It was before 10:30 a.m. on December 3 that local 911 dispatchers received a call from the post office, with Sandusky Police responding and arresting Williams, who had been a former federal inmate at the Sanilac County Jail. Authorities say that he was possibly suffering a mental health crisis at the time of the incident. Police Chief Brett Lester noted that the man “was fixated on returning to jail for some reason,” despite having moved back to Detroit after he was released from jail months ago. It wasn’t until that Saturday that he returned to Sanilac County, with the chief unsure how he made his way back to the area without a vehicle. The man seemed unprepared for the winter weather, wearing shorts and flip-flops at the time of the incident and only carrying a few personal items in the backpack with him, adding to puzzling nature of his trek back to Sandusky. No injuries were reported from the incident, with Chief Lester attributing that to quick responses by both the postal employees and law enforcement, with the Sanilac County Sheriff’s Office assisting at the scene. This is not Williams’ first brush with the law, having assaulted two Southfield police officers in February of this year, only to have the charge dismissed after being found incompetent to stand trial in June, as well as a similar incident in 2014 at a federal court building. Regardless, he is due before Judge Ross on Monday, December 19, at 9:00 a.m. for his pre-trial hearing, being lodged on a $5,000 cash or surety bond in Sanilac County Jail.
