Behind the Badge
Chemical agents.
A bullhorn.
A K9.
The Orange PD threw a lot of tools at a suspect during a 12-hour standoff that ended early Monday when the knife-wielding man was taken into custody after having holed himself up in an apartment all night, forcing evacuations.
Fortunately, the drama ended around 5:50 a.m. March 6 with no serious injuries — although the suspect, Christian Nava Reyes, 33, lunged at an OPD K9 with a knife, nicking him on the nose, Orange PD Sgt. Phil McMullin said.
“He’s fine,” McMullin said of K9 Griffin, whose handler is Officer Jude King.
The above video, courtesy of OnScene TV, captures several scenes from the incident, which yielded a large response of OPD officers, including the agency’s SWAT and crisis negotiation teams.
More than 25 officers were involved in the standoff and between 15 and 20 residents were evacuated, said Lt. Mike Monjaraz, commander of the OPD’s SWAT team.
“These incidents are difficult, and preservation of life is our primary goal and primary mission,” Monjaraz said. “Such incidents require us to be very deliberate and very thoughtful about how we go about doing our job.”
Around 5:45 p.m. Sunday, March 5, OPD officers responded to a report of a drunk-driving crash in the 600 block of South Glassell Street.
They were confronted by a man brandishing a knife.
Officers didn’t see the reported collision, and instead chased the apparently intoxicated suspect after he got in his car and took off. The pursuit ended about half a mile later at an apartment complex in the 200 block of South Lemon Street.
There, the man again threatened officers before he barricaded himself in an apartment.
The 12-hour standoff was unusually long for the OPD SWAT team, Monjaraz said.
“It (the duration) speaks to our willingness to really think through and insure that all the appropriate decisions were being made,” he said.
