David Andreatta

@david_andreatta

Rochester police have arrested Martin MacDonald, the Pittsford man accused of shoving an autistic teenager from Syracuse to the ground in Cobb's Hill Park.

Capt. Lloyd Cuyler said MacDonald, 57, turned himself in early Thursday and the officers retrieved him at his lawyer's office in downtown Rochester and brought him to police headquarters for processing.

Police had been searching for MacDonald since a Rochester City Court judge signed a warrant for his arrest Wednesday morning.

MacDonald is expected to be arraigned on Friday morning. He faces a charge of second-degree harassment, a violation with a maximum penalty of 15 days in jail.

The story of the altercation between MacDonald, who is white, and teenager Chase Coleman, who is black, captured national attention and inflamed racial tensions after the same judge who ordered MacDonald's arrest, Caroline Morrison, initially denied a request to press charges.

Police have said Morrison denied the request because the application neglected to include sworn statements from witnesses. Police collected those statements earlier this week and submitted them with a new application that Morrison signed.

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MacDonald, of East Jefferson Road, admitted to police that he pushed Coleman to the ground in the park on Oct. 14, according to two police reports of the incident.

Coleman had been in the park running a race for his high school cross country team and had fallen far behind the field when he encountered MacDonald. His mother has said she suspects her son, who rarely speaks and suffers from a condition in which he repeats phrases directed at him, got lost on the course and may have tried to turn to MacDonald for help.

A police report written by the officer investigating the incident for the Rochester Police Department and another report written by a Monroe County Sheriff's deputy who assisted with the investigation paint similar versions of events. But they offer slightly different takes on whether MacDonald approached Coleman or Coleman approached MacDonald before Coleman was shoved to the ground.

Also absent in the Rochester police report are remarks that MacDonald purportedly made to the deputy, who interviewed MacDonald the day of the altercation, that he thought Coleman was on drugs and mocking him.

MacDonald has not returned multiple phone messages seeking comment since the story first broke over the weekend. Reached by phone early Thursday, his lawyer, Gary Gianforti, declined to comment.

Family hopes for justice after attack on autistic black teen

DANDREATTA@Gannett.com