'Bath salts' suspect due in court in Glendale shovel attack

The Glendale man who was apparently high on the synthetic drug known as "bath salts" last week when he allegedly attacked a 77-year-old woman with a shovel is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on charges of first-degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon.

The man, 20-year-old Robert William White, was arrested Thursday after the attack, but police first had to fire a rubber bullet and Taser to subdue him during a brief standoff when he barricaded himself inside his apartment.

As White was carried off and handcuffed to a chair, he yelled “God loves all of you” to bystanders, the Glendale News-Press reported.

Police said he later told officers at the hospital that he had ingested "bath salts" that were dissolved in a soda he was drinking.

Prosecutors on Monday charged White with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly striking the elderly woman with a shovel as she walked in the 100 block of Spazier Avenue, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint.

Authorities added the first-degree burglary charge because White allegedly briefly entered the woman’s apartment as she called police for help.

The woman was treated for what police described as non-life-threatening injuries.

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-- Jason Wells, Times Community News

Photo: Robert William White yells to onlookers as he is wheeled out of an apartment he barricaded himself in after allegedly assaulting a 77-year-old woman with a shovel. Credit: Tim Berger / Times Community News