A Roseville man who has been a vocally staunch opponent of California’s mandatory vaccination law has been charged with willful cruelty to a child after a feud over a handicapped parking spot at his son’s school led to his arrest.
Joshua Coleman, 41, was an active campaigner against the recently enacted law, saying that vaccines caused an illness that have confined his son to a wheelchair, according to local Fox affiliate in the region Fox 40.
Now, he’s been charged with willful cruelty to a child, vandalism and obstructing a public official after a bizarre incident that left him hiding from police behind a garbage can.
“I’ve found people in trash cans before. It’s one of those places, if you’re a veteran officer, you look everywhere, you look in everything,” said Sargent Jason Bosworth of the Roseville Police Department told Fox 40.
Coleman had reportedly been seen by a fellow parent at George Sargeant Elementary School walking with one of his sons under one arm and using the other arm to use a key to inflict deep marks into the paint of a vehicle that was parked in a handicapped parking spot–one of several he uses at the school due to his son’s condition.
Authorities were called ,citing reports of vandalism, and when they arrived at the school to respond to the incident, Coleman reportedly ran and hid behind a garbage can before being found by police. He was reportedly arrested and charged with willful cruelty to a child after it was discovered by authorities that he had left his other children at home alone.
Fox 40 notes that this would not be the first time Coleman has had a confrontation at his son’s school over handicapped parking, citing a video he posted to his personal Facebook page showing a heated brush-up he had gotten into with a fellow parent at the school.
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