Local News

Grants Pass Police arrested a man for vandalizing a patrol vehicle shortly after he left Three Rivers Medical Center and had become the subject of a weekend welfare check.

According to the Police Department, officers were alerted to a man later identified as 57-year-old Robert Vincent Jones loitering at the Verizon Wireless Store on Union Avenue on Saturday at about 3 p.m..

Police said Jones had just left the hospital and was acting odd while lying in the middle of the road and then entering the store where he tried to lay down. Callers requested a welfare check as it appeared he was having some sort of medical issue.

Jones reportedly walked across Redwood Highway to the Chevron station where he continued his erratic behavior. He was placed into custody and put in a patrol vehicle where he intentionally head-butted the passenger side pillar, causing a large dent. It was unclear whether he injured himself.

Robert Jones was lodged at the Josephine County Jail for 2nd-Degree Criminal Mischief. He was being held without bail.