People wonder why it’s so hard to hire police officers. There’s a number of reasons but it pretty much boils down to the candidate being able to making a commitment to the profession and all it demands. And the commitment to excellence is no better outlined than in the following incidents presented.
Take for example: …the 9-1-1 call in the Taraval from a wife asking for help for her husband who suffers from bipolar disorder, had taken a psychedelic mushroom, and was now suffering from a “psychotic episode”.
And, the officers were further advised, “he may use the rifle he has to harm himself.”
Sergeant Alexander Kwan, Officer Arturo Ramirez, James Murphy-Kwan, Officer Christopher Flores, Officer Alejandro Meza, Officer Treyvon Hanna, and Officer Rick Omran responded immediately to the call.
The officers first made sure that the subject in question was isolated in one location of the residence.
Then Sergeant Kwan put a CIT team together who managed to initiate a conversation with the individual in need of medical attention. It took some time but they were successful in convincing him to step out so they could get him the help he needed. He complied and was transported to the hospital for treatment.
The subject’s wife expressed her sincere gratitude as to how the incident was handled and Captain Aaron Lozada made sure a Captain’s Commendation was in order stating that, “These officers should be commended for their professional and caring conduct which led to a potential deadly situation ending peacefully with no injuries to the subject or officers on the scene”.
There was another incident that required immediate police response. This involved a residential burglary on Monterey Boulevard at 2:00 a.m. which Officer Eric Tindall, Officer Jonathan Lee, Officer Ismall Abu-Arafeh, Officer Robert Dermake, Officer Matthew Maciel, and K9 Eli. responded to.
The officers arrived and quickly located and detained an individual standing by a getaway car loaded with items already taken from the residence in question. Then Officer Tindall found an open window and so, after several warnings with no response, Canine Eli was released. The suspect surrendered immediately.
(Officer Meza recognized one of the suspects as being an individual he had arrested in another burglary that occurred just 6 days earlier! — that policy may change now . . . )
The San Francisco Zoo is a place where families go to enjoy a day exploring the many different animal sites. It was on one of those days that Officer Raymond Zuroski, Officer Jonathan Ng, and Sergeant Christopher Dunne were dispatched to the zoo in the early afternoon to investigate a call of a “man armed with a gun.” They searched the zoo grounds but didn’t locate anyone matching his description. They did, however, find him a few blocks away. Upon further investigation the officers discovered the subject they had detained was armed with a fully-loaded gun and no good reason to have it. It’s not his anymore . . .
Then, as soon as things settled down, there was another 9-1-1 call involving an individual who was extremely intoxicated, threatening to hang himself and told Dispatch he already had a rope around his neck. Officer Arturo Ramirez, Officer Robert Earl Navarro, and Officer Joshua Olson responded.
The officers initially made contact with the subject’s neighbors who heard him earlier stating that he had a gun and was prepared to “shoot it out” with the responding officers.
The officers then tried to make contact with this subject but he was a highly agitated, intoxicated and suicidal person. He had climbed out of his 3rd floor window and stood on a stucco ledge approximately 1 inch wide with a rope around his neck.
For almost 2 hours Officer Ramirez used every skill he had to de-escalate this marathon session. It was at that point that Officer Olson arrived from another critical incident that he had just handled and participated as a back-up with Officer Ramirez. They finally succeeded in getting through to the individual they were dealing with and he surrendered peacefully and was subsequently released to SF General Hospital.
A robbery took place on the 200 block of Orizaba where an individual brandished a firearm at a Door Dash driver making a delivery around 2300 hours.
Officer Ariel Flores, Officer Brandon Erickson, and Officer Zakariya Ali responded and conducted a search for the robber. The 9-1-1 caller gave a detailed description of the suspect and they located him several blocks away. Because of the reference of a gun being used, the officers were extremely careful in dealing with this individual.
Turned out it was good to be cautious. The suspect had a loaded, .40 caliber Glock handgun with a 30-round magazine on him!
Now that’s putting it all on the line. Taking an individual into custody for a felony crime while he was heavily armed. In fact most of the cases referenced this month involve officers responding and taking a risk others might not want to. But that’s all part of the job and SFPD does it very well!!
The suspect barged his way into the closed Blaze Pizza store in Stonestown armed with a knife and threatening the employees who were just closing up. He then took the wallet from one of the workers and left. Officer Sakher Ghanem , Officer Keent Chu, and Officer Vince Warren responded and, within minutes, located the suspect leaving the area. Once confronted, he threw the knife he had to the ground and the wallet he had taken from a worker also fell out of his jacket. Case closed.
The residential alarm out by the Great Highway had Officer Jacquelyn Fuller, Officer Malia Dudum, Officer Maxim Mackenzie, Officer Arturo Ramirez, and Officer Simon Wong responding.
The officers discovered a broken door window in the rear of the building so they conducted a walk through but everything looked secure. They did notice an individual in a white truck driving around the neighborhood who, at one point, even stopped to see what was going on. Meanwhile, the owner of the building responded and noticed that his computer had been taken. He managed to track it to a fixed location and the officers responded to further their investigation.
When the officers arrived to the tracking location they noticed the same white truck that was present at their initial search parked nearby so they contacted the subject sitting in it and detained him for further investigation. Turns out he was the burglar, he took the laptop from the building, and when he was ordered to step from the truck the officers relieved him of the fully-loaded, Glock handgun he had with him.
You just never know.
Stay safe.
