Lang
2/4/24
A local transient faces charges that he threatened to kill a mall security guard.
Iowa City Police say they were called to the Old Capitol Town Center at 10:15 last Sunday morning for a man yelling obscenities, trying to open doors and threatening to kill people. Arriving officers found the suspect…identified as 27-year-old Michael Pennell…outside Noodles and Company. When asked what was wrong, he reportedly replied, “I plead the fifth” before demanding to be taken to jail.
A mall security guard told investigators that Pennell had picked up a chair and threatened to throw it at him while telling him he was going to kill him.
Pennell, who lists his address as CommUnity Crisis Services on Gilbert Court, is charged with 1st Degree Harassment. If convicted, he faces a maximum of two years in jail.