Thursday ended up being a whirlwind of a day with a number of incidents occurring from morning to evening. For everyone who was held up in traffic, stuck in their home or blocked from getting home by us, we are truly sorry. Sometimes it has to happen, and we only do it when it is necessary. Whoever said weekdays are slow should come spend a day with us. Luckily all of the events ended with everyone going home safely, or if appropriate to a jail.
Starting off the day at about 7am, we rolled out to a search warrant in the 1200 block of Gulf Drive. This was the culmination of great investigative work by the Patrol Bureau and Investigations Bureau. The search warrant was conducted to gather evidence and arrest those responsible for a shooting that occurred on N Texas Street two weeks prior. Upon the conclusion of the search warrant Chester Landers (40) and a 16 year old male juvenile were arrested for the shooting crimes.
We next responded to a search warrant in the 600 block of E Tennessee Street around 8am. This was the conclusion of another shooting investigation conducted by the Patrol Bureau and Investigations Bureau. This shooting occurred a little over a month ago in the same area on E Tennessee Street. During the search warrant, the suspect, a 17 year old juvenile exited the rear of the residence with a firearm in his hand. The subject failed to comply with officers commands and was subdued with the use of a less lethal impact munition device. Thankfully, none of the officers were forced to use their firearms, and yes the gun the subject had was real. The juvenile suspect was arrested and taken to a hospital for medical clearance.
Everyone assumed the rest of the day would be a breeze, but as fate would have it, a third incident occurred. Shortly before noon patrol officers responded to a residence in the 4900 block of Brittany Drive. The call was regarding a wanted subject who was in the residence. The subject identified as Adam Perez (26) was wanted for a violent assault that had occurred the previous night. When family returned to the home the next day, the subject was inside, made threats to harm a family member and was feared to have access to weapons.
This incident took a number of hours to resolve. Police personnel attempted to contact Perez who failed to come out of the residence. After using several techniques to include chemical agents (tear gas), Perez still did not come out. The SWAT team with the assistance of K9 Cort and Officer Pena, entered the residence. During the search, Perez was located hiding in a commercial style cooler/freezer commonly found in a convenience store for beverages. Perez refused to comply and continued to resist officers attempts to take him into custody. With the assistance of K9 Cort and a Taser, Perez was finally taken into custody.
Based on the circumstances of the call on Brittany Dr and the other family members being displaced, the Fairfield Police Department purchased a hotel room for them for the night. Perez was taken to a hospital for medical clearance and booked into the county jail for assault with a deadly weapon, battery causing serious bodily injury, and criminal threats.
While searching for the suspect on Brittany Dr, K9 Cort sustained a severe cut to one of his feet. He was taken to a veterinarian and is recovering. He is expected to make a full recover and will be back on the street soon.
During the last SWAT call out, an unassociated mother with her daughters happened to swing by the command post located a safe, but short distance away from the incident and crime scene. Even though it was an extremely busy day, we still made time to hang out for a bit, blow some money and buy/eat a bunch of Girl Scout cookies!
Yesterday illustrated hard work, community engagement and a number of different teams within the police department working together. The SWAT Team, Crisis Negotiations Team, Technical Support Team, Traffic Unit and Patrol worked together on the incidents of the day, ultimately turning them over to Investigations to complete.
