TC Man Arrested After Assaulting Media At Whitmer Event

A 39-year-old Traverse City man was arrested Thursday after creating a disturbance and assaulting media members during an appearance from Governor Gretchen Whitmer at Discovery Pier.

Leelanau County Sheriff's Office deputies were dispatched to Discovery Pier to assist at the scene of the disturbance, where the suspect was shouting obscenities and disrupting the event. As deputies monitored the man, he got into a heated disagreement with another person in attendance, drawing attention from nearby members of the media. The man grabbed a microphone out of the hand of a news reporter for UpNorthLive 7&4 and threw it, then spit at the 7&4 news team. Deputies arrested the man and booked him at the Leelanau County Jail on two counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious destruction of property.

Whitmer was at Discovery Pier to commemorate the signing Thursday of House Bill 4469, a bipartisan bill that appropriates $37.8 million in grant funding for 76 recreation projects and land purchases throughout Michigan, including several northern Michigan projects.