Man Arrested After Taking Clerk Hostage At Battle Creek’s McCamly Plaza Hotel

A man from Galesburg was arrested Monday morning for allegedly holding the clerk of McCamly Plaza Hotel hostage.

The Battle Creek Enquirer spoke to police who say a man checking into the hotel on Capital Ave. SW called 9-1-1 just before 4:00 am Monday, after he said the clerk passed him his room key with a note written on it to call for help. The caller also noted that there was another man in the lobby when he was there.

When police got there, that man tried fleeing from them, and he was tackled and hit with a taser, but it didn’t work. At one point the suspect even managed to get control of the taser before further officers responded and managed to get the man into custody.

Police say he was “rambling” and claimed to have walked from Kalamazoo, and denied kidnapping the clerk. Around the same time, the clerk arrived at the hospital. She said that the man, a 37-year-old from Galesburg, arrived at the hotel around midnight and tried to kidnap her; the suspect was acting strangely and she was afraid to call for help. At one point, he even followed her into the bathroom. She managed to escape when she said she was walking out for a smoke.

The suspect was arraigned on Monday on several felonies that could lead to life in prison, due to prior felony convictions.