Teen arrested after strapping knife to arm

By GAIL OBER, LACONIA DAILY SUN

NEW HAMPTON — A teenager who was living in his car tried to attack three people Tuesday afternoon who live at his former home by affixing a 12-inch blade to his arm.

Police affidavits said William Clement, 19, whose last known address was 12 Pine Meadow Road, also tried to light a fire in the garage, which contained boxes of ammunition and the explosive tannerite.

Clement faces four counts of felony-level criminal threatening and four counts of criminal-level reckless conduct.

According to affidavits, Clement apparently cut himself, and when officers arrived at the home he had gone to the public safety building to seek medical attention. The New Hampton officer called Bristol Police to assist at the home and left to find Clement at the safety building off Route 104. None of the intended victims were injured.

The officer intercepted Clement as he was leaving the safety complex and said Clement tried to drive around him. Using his patrol car to block the exit, police said Clement refused to get out of his car twice before he exited, his arms coated with blood. He said he just wanted police to let him go.

Affidavits said Clement kept asking New Hampton Police to shoot him and told them he was wearing extra layers of clothes so a Taser wouldn't work on him. After Clement was taken into custody, he began banging his head against the hard plastic seat back in the cruiser. Police took him to Lakes Region General Hospital where he was given a psychiatric examination and immediately released.

When police were securing his car, they found a three-bladed folding knife as well as large fixed-blade knife and a small fixed-blade knife in plain sight. Police also noticed a grinder typically associated with marijuana use and then sealed the car after having it towed to the police station to await a search warrant.

In court Wednesday, Clement banged his head twice against the back wall of the room of the jail where he was being video arraigned while the judge read the complaints against him. He stopped on his own.

Sgt. Prosecutor Monica Cunningham told the court that police were familiar with Clement and had responded to a suicide call at his former residence in December. She also noted that he was zapped by a Taser while trying to jump over a bridge rail in Bristol recently and in April, the Newfound Regional School District obtained an order banning him from its property. She said Clement is known to either possess or have access to guns.

Public Defender Steve Mirkin said he couldn't really make a case for personal recognizance bail but did ask Presiding Judge Jim Carroll to allow for a corporate surety component.

Carroll order him held on $20,000 cash-only bail but said that if he could get a bed in the state Psychiatric Unit he could be released on personal recognizance bail until such time as he is returned to jail. He ordered that his transport be completed by a law enforcement official.

Yesterday afternoon, Cunningham said the New Hampton Police are working with the Belknap County attorney's office regarding the explosives found in Clement's former home and that additional charges could be forthcoming.