A good guy without a gun

photo credit:  Baltimore Sun

In the riots over a week ago in downtown Cleveland, property was destroyed, looted, and torched.  The Cleveland Police explained that they were “unprepared” for the riots.  “Unprepared”?  Despite having seen the violence and rioting in Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Columbus in the days preceding?  Now comes a report about how a citizen in California stopped further killings.  From CBS News:

U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Steven Carrillo, who allegedly killed a Santa Cruz deputy and wounded two others with gunfire and improvised explosives in a weekend ambush in the Santa Cruz Mountains, was captured by a local resident who wrestled him to the ground and disarmed him of an AR-15, pipe bomb and pistol in a life-or-death confrontation, CBS San Francisco Bay Area reports.

Angry and emotional Santa Cruz Sheriff Jim Hart called Carrillo "a dangerous man intent on bringing harm to police officers."

"I want to talk a little about Steven Carrillo, I don't even want to say his name again," Hart told reporters at a Monday afternoon news conference. "It's the last time you are going to hear me say it. This guy was active Air Force. He was dangerous and he was an angry man intent on bringing harm to police officers. He murdered Sergeant (Damon) Gutzwiller. He injured another deputy."

But Hart said it was the actions of a local resident who stopped Carrillo from claiming more victims Saturday night.

"This guy (Carrillo) went into the backyard of a local resident and the local resident confronted him and wanted to know what he was doing on his property," Hart said. 

"The suspect told him that — actually he had an AR-15 slung, he was carrying an AR. He told the resident he wanted his car keys. The resident very calmly went into his house, obtained a key and came back out and handed it to him."

"As the suspect turned around, the resident tackled him and the AR-15 fell away and the resident took this guy to the ground. At that time the suspect reached into his pocket and pulled out a pipe bomb and tried to ignite a pipe bomb while being held down."

"This resident was able to knock the pipe bomb out of his hand and then the suspect reached into his waistband and pulled out a pistol. There was a wrestling match over the pistol. The resident was able to knock the pistol out of his hand, detain this guy. Multiple other community members from Ben Lomond jumped on this guy and held him until our deputies sheriffs were able to get there and take him into custody."

The full report is here.  So if this citizen could prevent more violence in California, why did the Cleveland Police – who did such a great job with security at the RNC in downtown Cleveland in 2016 – drop the ball?  What were their marching orders?  Inquiring minds want to know.

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RNC Convention week July 18-21 information

art credit: yahoo.com

Last night, I attended a meeting at the new Hilton Hotel; the meeting was for Clevelanders who live or work in the downtown neighborhoods and who will be affected by the RNC convention next month. My guess is that there were over 300 Clevelanders in attendance. Among the members of the panel were

·         Joe Calabrese, CEO and General Manager of RTA

·         Valarie McCall from Mayor Jackson’s office

·         Joe Marinucci, CEO of Downtown Cleveland Alliance

·         Two Secret Service Agents, Rowe and Lea, assigned to this event

·         Ed Tomba, Deputy Chief of Cleveland Police

Useful information included:

·         identifying the event zone, which includes just about all of the downtown area;

·         limited street access for vehicle traffic (more per the link below)

·        recommendations for traveling in and out of the downtown area during convention week (if at all possible, use the RTA Rapid Transit);

·         RTA will be operating double the number of free trolleys (presumably the E-Line, B-Line, and C-Lines) during convention week;

·         business operating hours will be extended to 4 a.m. – so be prepared for more partying as many bars and restaurants will be staying open till the wee hours;

·          Cleveland PD plans a significantly increased police presence, on the streets, on horseback, on bicycles, in and out of uniform, and augmented by LEOs from across the country and also with Secret Service agents;

·          the malls at the Convention Center will be dedicated to media use

LAW ENFORCEMENT: The takeaway most important to me was that Deputy Chief Ed Tomba stated flat out that if someone breaks the law, whether assault, property damage, etc., law enforcement officers are under instruction to make arrests and remove the individuals. Nobody wants to see the violence and police impotence that we saw on TV and on blog videos recently from San Jose.  

For updates and information specific to Cleveland residents, start at the website here: https://www.2016cle.com/community-updates. The panel promises more updates (some of the sections are already outdated). If you live or work in the downtown event zone or near it, you might want to bookmark the website, especially for updated transportation and safety issues.

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