The Van Buren man who ran his car into an demolished a day-old monument to the Ten Commandments on the capitol building grounds in Little Rock on Wednesday remains in the Pulaski County jail on bond of $100,000 as of early Friday afternoon.
Michael Reed, 32, appeared before a judge in Pulaski County District Court via a video link from the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility.
In Thursday’s hearing, Reed repeatedly interrupted the public defender by saying he didn’t want to be represented. He also kept saying, “My Lord My God.”
After requesting that Reed’s microphone be muted, the public defender voiced concerns about Reed’s mental health.
Reed was arrested soon after the incident that happened before dawn. A video that Reed posted on his Facebook page showed a vehicle ramming into the monument. The impact reduced the monument to rubble less than 24 hours after it was erected.
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 Healthsouth”.
Another hearing for Reed was set for Sept. 7. He’s facing charges of defacing objects of public interest, criminal trespass, and criminal mischief.
