Behind the Badge
The Garden Grove PD on Wednesday arrested a transient suspected of committing several felonies after the man saw officers in a park and then hopped over two fences into a frigid flood channel.
The suspect, Jason James Harvey, 31, was showing signs of hypothermia when deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Air Unit found him hiding in shrubbery near the shoreline at Haster Basin Park, 12952 Lampson Ave., the GGPD said in a Feb. 13 news release.
GGPD officers had lost sight of the man and, believing he may have drowned, summoned the OCSD and the Garden Grove Fire Department’s water-rescue team to search for him.
The event unfolded at around 11:20 a.m. Wednesday.
GGPD officers were at the park looking for a person related to an ongoing investigation when they saw a group of male transients near a gazebo.
That’s when one of the men, later identified as Harvey, bolted into the channel when it was raining and started to swim away, the news release said.
Officers monitored the man as he swam across the basin toward the opposite side of the park. They saw him struggling to swim and lost sight of him.
GGFD water rescue personnel helped the man out of the water. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Officers discovered Harvey was wanted for several arrest warrants on charges that included grand theft, burglary, being under the influence of drugs, and false representation.
Harvey also was charged with running from the police and trespassing.
