A Chickaloon man was arrested on Assault III&IV and Reckless Endangerment charges after a confrontation with rafters rafting down the Chickaloon River on Monday afternoon.

According to the trooper report, a four-raft group with Nova River Rafters was rafting the river on Monday, when one of the rafts hit an underwater object and dumped the occupants, mostly juveniles, into the icy waters.

The guides began to secure the rafts to the eastern bank of the river in order to focus their attention on fishing the rafters that had gone into the river, out of the water.

That was when the rafting group were confronted by a man identified as 56-year-old Bruce A. Harrison. Harrison first approached two raft and the occupants and threatened to cut their boats, the two groups of rafters untied and pushed themselves into deeper water to avoid the irate Harrison.

With those rafters out of reach, Harrison approached one of the guides who had disembarked from his raft in a effort to aid the juveniles that were in the water from the previous overturn. Harrison pointed his knife at the guide as he was assisting the people in the water. The guide attempted to explain the situation to Harrison, but Harrison continued with his threats.[xyz-ihs snippet=”adsense-body-ad”]

Then, Harrison approached a third raft and untied the raft which was tied to a tree, and kicked the raft into the fast water as juveniles aboard the raft pleaded with Harrison not to untie them as they did not have a guide to control the raft in the swift waters.

The guide who was on shore, quickly entered the water and swam to the raft that had entered the rapids in order to take control of it.

Following the incident, one of the river rafting guides contacted Alaska State Troopers and reported the incident.

As a result of his actions and the ensuing investigation, “Harrison was place under arrest and charged with four counts of Assault in the 3rd Degree, eight counts of Assault in the fourth Degree and six counts of Reckless Endangerment,” the  trooper dispatch revealed on Tuesday.

According to online court records, Harrison is being arraigned on four counts of Assault III and a single charge of Assault IV, he is due to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon and remains in custody.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adversal-468×60″]

  assault, bruce harrison, chickaloon, confrontation, knife, overturned, rafters, reckless endangerment, river, threats