Charges due for ‘bath salts’ suspect accused in Glendale shovel attack

A Glendale man apparently high on the synthetic drug known as “bath salts” is expected to be charged Monday following his arrest for allegedly striking a woman in the head with a shovel.

Robert William White, 20, was arrested Thursday after barricading himself inside his apartment. It took a rubber bullet and Taser before officers finally were able to subdue him.

As he was led away in handcuffs in a wheelchair, he yelled, “God loves all you!” several times to bystanders as paramedics removed him from his apartment in the 1000 block of Spazier Avenue and took him to a nearby hospital.

He was held in the Twin Towers jail, which is designed for those with medical needs, and is slated to be in a Glendale courtroom to face charges, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He told investigators he had been drinking soda spiked with the synthetic drug known as bath salts.

Northwest Glendale Police Lt. Bruce Fox said White barricaded himself inside his apartment for nearly an hour until police opened his front door using a key and walked inside to get him, Fox said.

White allegedly had attacked a woman in a nearby apartment building. She had asked White to stop swinging his shovel at birds before he allegedly used it to strike her in the head.

The woman, whose name wasn’t released, was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for what police described as non-life-threatening injuries.

In October, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration made the possession and sale of three of the chemicals commonly used to make bath salts -- mephedrone, MDPV and methylone -- illegal.

-- Richard Winton and Veronica Rocha, Los Angeles Times