OMAHA, Neb. -- A teenage mourner wanted on misdemeanor charges was handcuffed and arrested as he leaned over his mother's coffin to say his last goodbyes, a relative said. Police said Thursday their action was justified.
Ronald Dunbar, 18, was arrested Wednesday by sheriff's deputies in plain clothes at the family plot in Forest Lawn Memorial Park as other mourners watched.
'It's sad and we're sorry about the mother dying,' Douglas County Sheriff Richard Roth said. 'There were seven Omaha warrants out on him and we had one.
'A juvenile judge called and said she wanted him picked up,' Roth said. 'We knew where he was and we went out and picked him up.'
Dunbar's arrest was made by 'two very solid, experienced' sheriff's deputies, after the graveside services were concluded, Roth said.
'Whether he was at the casket or not I don't know,' he said. 'That's immaterial. We had an legal obligation to arrest him.'
Lonnie Byers, 22, said her cousin was 'leaning over the coffin saying his last goodbyes and they walked in and put the cuffs on him.'
'The kid was trying to say his farewells to his mother,' Byers said. 'You know he's not going to have another chance to do that.'
Omaha Police Chief Robert Wadman said Dunbar had evaded authorities for more than a year.
'On one occasion, he jumped from a second-story window at his grandparents' house,' Wadman said, adding his unformed officers were 'waiting down the hill.'
Wadman acknowledged Dunbar's arrest 'created a tremendous public relations black eye for us.
'If it was for a felony or a violent crime then the arrest unquestionably would have been appropriate,' Wadman said. 'We're going to take a look and see if we can make some adjustments on this relating to misdemeanor warrants.
'If a guy's at a wedding or a funeral -- these kinds of situations - we ought to use some kind of discretion,' he said.
Dunbar appeared Thursday before Municipal Judge Francis McLane who sentenced him to 30 days in jail for assault and battery and fined him $100 for unlawful flight to avoid arrest. A disorderly conduct charge and the remaining warrants, all involving traffic offenses, were dismissed.
'He is in jail now,' said Seb Caporale, the Dunbar family's attorney.
'I told the judge his life has had an awful lot of bad things involved in it -- his father died at an early age and his mother was a paraplegic,' Caporale said. 'He basically was raised by his grandparents who are quite old and themselves not in the best of health.'
Judy Dunbar, 37, died Monday at a hospital after choking on food at a nursing home where she lived. She suffered a stroke four years ago.
Wadman and Roth said Dunbar's family knew of his flight from the law, but Byers said the family was 'upset' by the arrest.
