VIDEO: Lone Officer Gets Attacked By Burglar Inside Pitch-Black Marijuana Shop

Tecumseh, OK – Security cameras inside a medical marijuana dispensary captured the moment when a lone Tecumseh police officer brawled with a burglar after interrupting a midnight break-in (video below).

“When the lights go off, it’s pitch-black dark. You can’t see nothing,” Good Ol’ Boys Dispensary co-owner Blake Nadeau told KJRH.

The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 8, when 19-year-old Jacob Melendez kicked his way through the sliding-glass front doors of the unoccupied business, KFOR reported.

The break-in triggered a silent alarm, and a Tecumseh police officer was responding to the store within minutes, Tecumseh Police Chief J.R. Kidney said.

Security footage showed Melendez as he made his way to a locked second door and kicked out a bottom panel.

He then slipped inside, and immediately began trying to break into cabinets, Nadeau told KFOR.

Melendez eventually kicked a third door, knocking it off its hinges, and discovered the business’s locked safe.

Meanwhile, the responding Tecumseh police officer followed Melendez’s trail of wreckage and made his way into the store.

“The officer’s flashlight was the only light that he had,” Chief Kidney told KFOR. “Pretty scary situation to enter.”

When the officer confronted the burglar, Melendez initially tried to run out another door but collided with it instead, the video showed.

“He tried to go out this back door,” Nadeau told KFOR. “Got thrown on his butt pretty heavily.”

The suspect then appeared to cooperate with the officer for a brief moment, but went on the fight when the officer started to take him into custody.

Nadeau was watching security footage on his phone app as his girlfriend drove him to the business, and immediately told her to let police know that the officer needed help.

“I’m telling my girlfriend as we’re driving over, ‘Call them, tell them that they’re in a scuffle so he don’t get hurt,'” he recounted to KFOR.

After shoving the officer to the ground, Melendez turned and fled from the business the same way he came in, the video showed.

He made off with about $20 in stolen merchandise, KFOR reported.

Police apprehended him the following day on charges of assault and battery on a police officer, second-degree burglary, destruction of property, and escaping a lawful arrest.

You can watch security footage of the officer’s encounter with Melendez in the video below: