Knife brandished by man kicking down Eldorado Police Department door

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[An Eldorado man is jailed after kicking his way into a secured area of the Eldorado Police Department, apparently intent on plunging a knife into the body of Eldorado Chief of Police Shannon Deuel.

Deuel said the incident happened shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday while Dispatcher Harvey Hobbs was on duty and while Officer Tom Martin was in the office doing paperwork.

Deuel was not on duty; he was at home relaxing, he said.

According to Eldorado police, Jonathon Early Gay, 20, of Eldorado entered the station, went past the dispatcher's window and kicked in a door leading to the department's offices.

When Gay entered the station and kicked the door, Deuel said Gay was talking and was "kind of out of his head."

Hobbs, once a street officer and now a dispatcher, left his desk, exited the dispatching area and went to a hallway to halt the intruder.

At that point, Gay brandished a knife at Hobbs.

Officers Rostin Bergan and Martin and Dispatcher Hobbs disarmed Gay and summoned Deuel.

Deuel said he is mystified as to the cause of the incident. And he found it frightening.

When Gay was questioned, he said his intended victim was Deuel.

"He said he was 'coming in to give it to me,'" Deuel said.

Along with Deuel, other officers in the department on duty Thursday evening are baffled as to the cause of the incident.

Deuel and Martin each said they have never had contact with Gay and, until Thursday evening, did not know him.

Bergan recalled one time when he had seen Gay. It was in an Eldorado restaurant, Bergan said. "He tried to start something with an older guy."

Gay currently is held at the Saline County Detention Center on arrest charges of criminal damage to state-supported property, aggravated assault and resisting and obstructing a peace officer. He is held for court appearance.

To ensure the security of the department's offices, Eldorado Public Properties Commissioner Keith Bean was at the department shortly after the incident to determine what needs to be done to repair the kicked-in door, Deuel said.