One arrested following fire, incident at Pana Lake

PANA — Following the Pana Fire Department response to a fire in “G” Section of Pana Lake on Monday, a 24-year-old Taylorville man was arested and charged with obstructing/resisting a peace officer and trespass to property.

Pana Police Chief Daniel Bland said the department was called to the scene of the fire and upon arrival, heard a male subject makings suicidal threats in the woods nearby. They discovered he was extremely intoxicated and had came from the same location as the fire. Firefighters engaged to support the male subject until officers from the Pana Police Department arrived. Once on the scene, police had to deal with another male subject,

Lucas D. Stephenson, 24, of Taylorville. He had initially approached to help his friend. However, Stephenson turned on police and started being very combative and threatening, refusing to listen, or cooperate with anyone.

Stephenson became extremely emotional, running around making threats to police and fire personnel and also family members as police tried to de-escalate and search for solutions, Bland said.

Additional family members arrived and got into an argument with Stephenson due to his erratic behavior. Bland said Shelby County deputies arrived to assist and law enforcement personnel was able to temporarily separate all parties trying to collect property and decide where people were going to resolve the issue.

Stephenson then quickly turned from cooperative to combative and raced towards the property owner making direct threats where officers had to forcibly detain and arrest him.

“We are thankful for the great working relationship with Pana fire and also surrounding law enforcement agencies who are available to support during chaotic scenes, especially during incidents such as this,” Bland said. “We controlled the scene, made arrests, offered help where needed and everyone went home safely which is our utmost goal.”