Man accused of urinating on MLK eternal flame briefly escaped during arrest, reports says

Police said in a report that Jones also broke the eternal flame container at the King Memorial Center.

APD said the incident itself happened on Oct. 11, when Jones trespassed on the King Center property.

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Officers responded after on-site security called the trespass in, saying that a man was acting irately and was detained.

When police spoke to the security guard at the King Center, they told officers that the man who they detained argued with another man, then damaged the property and burial site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ms. Coretta Scott King.

Police said Jones damaged the property by trying to urinate in the reflection pool, then on the eternal flame in an attempt to extinguish it.

When Jones was asked to get out from behind the gate blocking the flame from visitors, he became irate and stood no it, “causing about $3,000 worth of damages.”

Jones then “scattered the documents that were on the memorial podium for Dr. King Jr.,” a police report says.

When Jones was taken into custody and put in the back of a patrol car to be taken to the police precinct, he slipped out of his cuffs and escaped, but was recaptured and taken to the precinct.

Police said when they arrived, Jones started yelling racial slurs at an officer, then kicked over a fan inside the police precinct before being taken away for detention.

Officers said Jones was so irate while in the precinct that a judge was unable to hear through a speaker while police read the warrants for the incident.

Jones was taken to the Fulton County Jail on charges of criminal damage to property, criminal trespass, public indecency and obstruction.

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