Member of Cabrillo Village gang arrested after New Year’s fight
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Police Department
Published: January 06, 2010
A fight involving members of a notorious Saticoy gang was reported to Santa Paula Police early New Year’s morning and one man was arrested on a variety of charges, including attempting to ram a police patrol car with his own vehicle.
According to SPPD Sergeant Ryan Smith, the incident started at 1:05 a.m. on Friday, January 1 when “Officers responded to a fight call in the 500 block of Bradley Street. About 50 subjects were reported fighting and breaking bottles over each others heads.”
As officers were arriving in the area, dispatch reported, “Several people called 9-1-1 and said those involved in the fight were leaving” the scene in a silver-colored vehicle. Officers spotted the vehicle, which, Smith said, “abruptly stopped” near the intersection of Pleasant and Bradley streets.
One officer attempted to block the vehicle using his patrol car, and a second patrol vehicle blocked the roadway when the driver of the suspect vehicle made a maneuver that presented a threat to police officers. The silver-colored vehicle finally stopped, and “The right front passenger got out and ran,” but the four other occupants “were detained at gunpoint,” said Smith.
The driver of the vehicle, Mateo Reyes, 22, of Saticoy, was arrested for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer and suspicion of failing to obey the order of a police officer. Reyes, said Smith, is a member of a Cabrillo Village gang.
The incident, Smith added, “goes to show the level of training that Santa Paula police officers receive is second to none. There are multiple situations when people drive at officers and are killed... this demonstrates our officers are very careful and go the extra mile” to avoid using their weapons.
“In a situation like this it would have been a justified use of force” for officers to fire on the motorist. That the situation ended peacefully no with injury to officers or the suspect “speaks volumes about SPPD training... our officers used very good restraint in this situation.”
Other occupants of the vehicle were detained during the investigation - which is ongoing - then released at the scene. Ten officers were dispatched to the scene of the incident of the 14 total Smith said were assigned to New Year’s Eve duty. Alcohol use by the suspect and others, he added, was a factor in the incident.
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