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Man allegedly gets violent after being pulled over for traffic violation

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oey@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man was arrested over the weekend in the Tafuna area when police pulled him over for not stopping at a stop sign in front of the Veterans Memorial Stadium.

When officers pulled over Mr. Jason Laumoli, he stepped out of his vehicle and approached the on duty officers, and allegedly became aggressive and started yelling profanities out to the officers and also threatened to kill one of them.

Officers reported that as he was threatening and yelling profanities at them, they detected a strong odor of alcohol emitting from Laumoli, and that his speech was also slurred.

Laumoli was charged with four counts, including public peace disturbance in which he engaged in violent, tumultuous, or threatening behavior, made unreasonable noise and used obscene language in a public place; assault in the third-degree in which the defendant attempted to cause or recklessly cause physical injury to another person, in this case, one of the officers that was present.

The third count was for resisting arrest, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for one year, a fine of $1,000 or both; while the fourth count was assault in the third degree, as a class C. misdemeanor, in which the defendant purposely placed one of the on duty officers in ways of immediate physical injury.

THE CASE

Court documents disclose that on April 29, 2023, at around 2a.m. in the Tafuna area, Jason Laumoli was pulled over by police in front of the Veterans Memorial Stadium for not stopping at a stop sign. When Laumoli, stepped out of his vehicle he became aggressive and started yelling out profanities.

He also threatened one of the officers saying, “I’m going to kill you”. The strong odor of alcohol fumes was smelled on the defendant’s person, with his speech slurring as well.

One of the officer’s attempted to calm Laumoli down but was unsuccessful, which resulted in the defendant being detained, and then transported to the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) for further processing.

When the officers were escorting Laumoli into the TPS, he elbowed one of the officers directly in the facial area once. Laumoli was then booked and transported to the Tafuna Correctional Facility to await the sitting of the court on Monday, May 1, 2023.

The police report did not indicate whether or not Laumoli was given a sobriety or blood test or charged with a DUI.  There was also no mention if he was issued a ticket for failing to stop at a stop sign, the initial cause of the traffic stop.