The Van Buren man arrested for destroying the Ten Commandments monument at the Arkansas State Capitol had multiple run-ins with law enforcement and trips to hospitals in the days before he landed on the capitol lawn.
At 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Michael Reed posted a Facebook Live video of him revving the engine of his car, yelling ‘”Freedom!,” and then crashing into the monument.
Shortly before, he destroyed the monument he posted another video saying it was a constitutional rights issue, and that the monument needed to come down.
At that time he also asked for people to contribute to a GoFundMe page, which was taken down after all the publicity hit surrounding his Wednesday actions, to replace the car he was using to run over the monument.
Reed was arrested Wednesday morning after the incident at the state capitol and taken to the Pulaski County jail on charges of criminal mischief, criminal trespass, and destroying property of public interest.
Apparently, Reed is on disability after having several back surgeries and although he had exhibited some unusual behavior in the past, he seemingly started spiraling out of control back in May.
Reed had previously destroyed the Ten Commandments monument outside the Oklahoma state capitol in 2014. At the time, he said that Satan had told him to run the monument down. He was never formally charged after undergoing a mental health evaluation.
For several weeks leading up to the incident on Wednesday, Reed had exhibited unusual behavior. His Facebook account featured a series of rambling and often bizarre videos, random posts about religion and government and declarations that “he was the only person willing to do what needed to be done”.
His posts and videos included references to UFO’s over the Mulberry River, #somecopslie, predicting 1260 consecutive days of no rainfall. being crowned “ruler” of the world as well as other cryptic messages.
Facebook friends had been pleading with him since early May to get psychiatric help.
Sometimes during the weeks before the Wednesday incident, Reed decided he had been called to preach, and he actually posted some videos of him in front of a lectern doing so, saying he was being allowed to spread the gospel “in the cafeteria at Helathsouth”.
At 8:30 p.m. Monday, Tulsa police responded to a disturbance of a man wearing a blue Ninja turtle mask, burning a flag inside a restaurant. Reed confirmed it was him in a Facebook video, alleging he had fulfilled a Native American prophecy.
Tulsa police confirmed he was taken to the hospital, but was not held on an emergency detention order because he did not appear to be suicidal or homicidal.
On Tuesday he left the hospital and was back on Facebook by 10 a.m. the next day, planning to go to Bluff Hole Park in Mulberry for a “light event.” He promised that if everything did not go to plan, he would seek mental help and a court order for medications.
By 7 p.m., Mulberry police, sheriffs deputies and EMTs were responding to the Bluff Hole Park area after being alerted that Reed was there and might hurt himself. According to one report, Reed voluntarily came down from the cliff and agreed to go to a hospital in Fort Smith. He was reportedly not detained, because he had not broken any laws and no sort of welfare or mental health hold was placed on Reed at the time.
