Off-duty security instructor pepper-sprayed autistic man for eating free cookies, charges say [View all]

He was the training director of one of St. Paul’s largest security companies — a man certified on when and how to use Mace.

Which left police mystified as to why Timothy Knutsen would pepper spray an autistic man in the face for eating a cookie from a Cub Foods sampler tray.

Knutsen, 53, of St. Paul, has been charged with two counts of fifth-degree assault and disorderly conduct for an incident in Roseville last month.

According to an incident report, in early March, Knutsen was a customer at a Cub Foods at 1201 Larpenteur Ave., when he saw a man eating “a doughnut or a cookie” from the bakery. He told an employee at the store’s service desk, but she said she didn’t see it and there was nothing she could do.

Read more: http://www.twincities.com/2017/04/27/roseville-mn-security-trainer-customer-with-autism-mace-pepper-spray-ate-sample-cookies-charges/