THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2019 A3

The North Coast

Man dies in Sheriff’s Office custody
Deputies were trying
to restrain driver of
vehicle reported as stolen
By NASHELLY CHAVEZ
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A suspect in a stolen-vehicle
pursuit outside Sebastopol died
Wednesday morning after Sono-
ma County sheriff’s deputies at-
tempted to put him in a restraint
hold meant to induce uncon-
sciousness and then placed him
in handcuffs, the Sheriff’s Office
said.
The man, a Sonoma Coun-
ty resident whose name was
withheld by the Sheriff’s Office
pending notification of his fam-
ily, was reported to have expe-
rienced “a medical emergency”
after being taken into custody.
Life-saving efforts at the scene
— Sutton Road in Bloomfield —
were unsuccessful and he was
taken to Petaluma Valley Hos-
pital, where he died, according
to the Sheriff’s Office and Santa
Rosa police.
The Santa Rosa Police De-
partment is investigating the
encounter under the county’s
protocol for serious or fatal law
enforcement incidents. Neither
the Santa Rosa agency nor the
Sheriff’s Office was able to pro-
vide a detailed timeline of the
pursuit nor the moments lead-
ing up to the man’s death, citing
the ongoing investigation.
Authorities encountered the
man sometime after 5:41 a.m. as
they were looking in the area of
Frei Road and Guerneville Road
east of Graton for a vehicle sto-
len during a carjacking. The
crime happened sometime Sun-
day in Sonoma County and the
license plate of the car the man
was driving Wednesday morn-
ing matched the stolen vehi-
cle’s, Sonoma County Sheriff’s
spokesman Sgt. Juan Valencia
said.
Radio traffic indicated author-
ities located the vehicle about
5:49 a.m., Santa Rosa Police Lt.
Dan Marincik said. A deputy
and two Sebastopol police of-
ficers sought to pull over the
driver on Bloomfield Road near
Murray Road south of Sebasto-
pol, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
The driver, who was alone in the
car, initially pulled over, then
sped away, prompting a pursuit,
TURN TO CUSTODY » PAGE A4

SANTA ROSA » Great Thanksgiving Banquet provides meals to 5,000 SANTA ROSA

Portable
toilets
OK’d for
homeless
Permits temporarily end
wrangling over crisis at
Joe Rodota Trail camp
By TYLER SILVY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A week after an explosive
meeting at the Sonoma County
Board of Supervisors over the
growing homeless camp along
the Joe Rodota Trail in west
Santa Rosa, portable toilets and
hand-washing stations are now
in place for the camp residents,
a step activists urged in banners
and comments at last week’s
meeting.
Officials and activists on both
sides have called the sprawl-
ing encampment — with at
least 170 people and more than
ALVIN JORNADA / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT 140 tents — a public health cri-
Volunteer Andelisa Palomera, right, serves Thanksgiving dinner to Claudia Renteria and members of her family during the Great Thanksgiving sis. Wrangling between home-

Serving holiday cheer

Banquet hosted by Redwood Gospel Mission at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa on Wednesday. less advocates and county of-
ficials ultimately led Sonoma
County Regional Parks to is-
sue permits allowing for eight
portable toilets equipped with
hand-washing stations.
The outhouses, delivered
Tuesday, were sought by a group
allied with Homeless Action,
the local organization pushing
By CHANTELLE LEE England, 28, only recently moved back feet,” England said. “We really don’t have for establishment of sanctioned
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT to Santa Rosa and is living in a shelter anything, so (this event) was a blessing.” encampments. The restrooms

B
rittanie England watched with
a smile as her two sons enjoyed
their meals at the Redwood Gospel
Mission’s annual Thanksgiving banquet
Wednesday.
with her sons. They were down to their
last three cups of ramen when they found
out about the Great Thanksgiving Ban-
quet, an annual event that provides hot
meals to 5,000 people.
“We’re just struggling to get back on our
The banquet, which the Redwood Gospel will be paid for by Sonoma Ap-
Mission has been hosting for more than plied Village Services, the allied
two decades at the Sonoma County Fair- group, which is trying to raise
grounds, also offered free coats, haircuts, money for the effort.
Adrienne Lauby, a leader
TURN TO BANQUET » PAGE A4
TURN TO HOMELESS » PAGE A4

Hail to Santa on Friday, and to all who wear badges

S CHRIS SMITH
anta Claus will trade his
sleigh for a firetruck as
the Winter Lights festival
in Old Courthouse Square on
Friday honors the firefighters,
peace officers, National Guards-
men and first responders who
keep us safe.
With winter approaching
after another fiery, frightful
fall, the theme of the annual
tree lighting celebration is grat-
itude. The festivities will start
at 4 with yuletide music by the
SRJC Choir, and the arrival by
firetruck of Santa Claus. There
will be photos with the jolly elf,
face painting, cookie decorat-
ing, holiday crafts, food trucks,
free hot chocolate for the kids
and other beverages for the
grown-ups.
The stage show, set for
6:30 p.m., will pay tribute to
the emergency personnel who
work around the clock and put
themselves in danger during
disasters such as October’s
Kincade fire.
Performances by Windsor
Dance Academy and Transcen-
dence Theatre Company will
lead to comments, scheduled
for 6:30 p.m., by Congressman
Mike Thompson and other
luminaries.
The hosting Santa Rosa Met-
ro Chamber will invite all of
the first responders present to
come onto the stage for recogni-
tion just ahead of the tree-light-
ing and the customary candle
memorial by Sutter Health.
And with that, there will be
no denying that Holiday Season
2019 has arrived.
THE SAME MAN has, for
the past two decades, ushered
in Christmas to the
Wikiup-Larkfield-Mark West
area.
This 6-foot-3 fellow years ago
purchased a professional,
extra-large Santa Claus suit.
Days after Thanksgiving each
year, he climbs onto a firetruck
and, bearing pounds and pounds
of candy canes, delights kids
of all ages who gather for the
Holiday Tree Lighting by the
Mark West Area Chamber of
Commerce and Visitors Center.
Hit awfully hard by the Tubbs
fire and menaced by the Kincade,
that area surely feels ready for
the winter rain and the warming
comforts of the holidays.
Neighbors will come together
at 6 p.m. Wednesday for a com-
munity tree lighting, refresh-
ments and singing by students
of the Mark West Union School
District.
Channeling Santa, once
again, will be mortgage broker,
political animal, broadcaster
and ex-Healdsburg City Council
member Peter Foppiano.
DINING OUT is one thing
that we who share this lovely
little jewel in the global mosaic
do well. And there may be no
better day in Sonoma County
to share a meal out than next
Thursday, Dec. 5.
It’s Dining Out for Life day.
More than 70 restaurants will
donate a portion of the day’s
sales to Food for Thought,
provider of nutritious food to
hundreds of people living with
HIV and other serious illnesses.
Ambassadors of Food for
Thought will be at participating
eateries to welcome and thank
diners, and to gently provide an
opportunity for individual do-
nations to the Forestville-based
nonprofit’s mission.
Check out fftfoodbank.org
for more details and a list of
the participating restaurants. I
see that Walter Hansel Bistro is
fully booked on Dec. 5, so it will
donate 100% of receipts to Food
For Thought also on Dec. 4.
I look forward to being a
Dining Out for Life ambassador
once again from 7:30 a.m. to
1:30 p.m. Thursday at Mac’s
Deli & Cafe. Love to see you
there.
You can reach Chris Smith at
707-521-5211 and chris.smith@
pressdemocrat.com.

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A4 NORTH COAST THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2019

Heavy weekend rain expected CUSTODY too early to tell whether

By CHANTELLE LEE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
As the season’s first rainstorm
ended Wednesday, weather and fire
officials advised Sonoma County
residents to prepare for heavier rain
this weekend.
Rainfall is expected to start mid-
day Saturday, continuing through
the weekend into Tuesday, said Car-
olina Walbrum, a National Weather
Service meteorologist. The storm
could bring a ½-inch to ¾ of an inch
of rain in lower North Bay eleva-
tions. In the hills, Walbrum predict-
ed up to 2 inches.
Because the storm is expected to be
an atmospheric river — a heavy win-
ter storm that comes inland from the
Pacific Ocean — Walbrum said it was
more difficult to predict which North
Bay areas will be most affected.
Temperatures will stay cool this
weekend, with highs in the 50s on
Saturday before warming into the
upper 50s to low 60s Sunday into
Monday, Walbrum said.
The Sonoma County Airport re-
corded a little more than an inch of
rain Tuesday into Wednesday morn-
ing. The heaviest rainfall at the air-
port came during rush hour Tuesday
evening, National Weather Service
meteorologist Drew Peterson said.
The county experienced scattered
showers Tuesday and Wednesday,
but that rain tapered off as expected
before Thanksgiving Day, Peterson
said.
By 5 p.m. Wednesday, nearly all
of the 6,000 PG&E customers in the
county who had lost power Tuesday
had it restored, PG&E spokeswoman
Angela Lombardi said. PG&E has
extra crews on alert for the weekend
in case there are more storm-related
outages, she said.
The National Weather Service
likely will issue flash flood watch-
CONTINUED FROM A3
es or warnings in the next day or authorities said.
so, given the detrimental effects the An attempt by pursuing
rainfall could have on areas burned officers to stop the fleeing
by the recent Kincade fire, Walbrum car by veering into it was
said Wednesday. unsuccessful. The pursuit
If the storm ends up being an at- ended several miles away
mospheric river, Cal Fire Battalion on Sutton Road west of
Chief Marshall Tuberville wor- Petaluma, where depu-
ried trees weakened by the Kincade ties used their vehicles to
blaze could fall into roads, hinder- box in the fleeing car, the
ing first responders’ ability to react Sheriff’s Office said.
to an emergency, and it could cause The driver fought with
landslides in areas where grass had deputies as they tried to
burned. arrest him, the depart-
“It’s all about the timing and inten- ment said, though officials
sity of the rainfall,” Tuberville said. did not elaborate on the
“I’m optimistic nothing bad is going nature of the struggle or
to happen, but I’m definitely moni- whether it took place in-
toring the situation.” side or outside the vehicle.
They used a Taser on the
Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez con- driver, but he continued
tributed to this report. You can reach to resist arrest. Deputies
Staff Writer Chantelle Lee at 707-521- then attempted to use a
5337 or chantelle.lee@pressdemocrat. carotid restraint — a type
com. On Twitter @ChantelleHLee. of stranglehold that puts
pressure on the carotid ar-
tery and causes a person to
lose consciousness — the
the hold or the use of a
Taser contributed to the
man’s death.
Sheriff’s officials did
not say if the man lost
consciousness or stopped
breathing. He experienced
a medical emergency af-
ter he was placed in hand-
cuffs, prompting deputies
to begin life-saving mea-
sures and summon medi-
cal help, the agency said.
Police have located
body-worn-camera video
of the incident, which will
be used by Santa Rosa in-
vestigators in their review
of the incident, Marincik
said. The Marin County
Coroner’s Office will han-
dle a separate death inves-
tigation and autopsy that
investigators will also rely
on, he added. Officers will
forward their findings to
the Sonoma County Dis-
trict Attorney’s Office,
which will then deter-
mine whether any crimi-
nal charges are warrant-
ed in the man’s death.

BANQUET was his “favorite” part

of the day. England also
found winter coats for all
would struggle without an
event like this for Thanks-
giving,” Gilman said.
resident who came to the
event Wednesday.
For some, Wednesday’s
Sheriff’s Office reported.
The tactic involves putting
one’s arm around a sus-
“Our role is gathering
all those facts and con-
ducting a complete inves-
CONTINUED FROM A3 of them. One such volunteer event was a family outing pect’s neck in a V shape tigation to understand
“I almost want to cry,” was Olivia Mitchell, a for the holiday. and putting pressure on what occurred,” Marincik
flu shots and manicures. England said. “We’re 14-year-old student at Joyce Rodriguez, 56, each side to block blood said.
Kids can play games inside super grateful.” Montgomery High School. comes to the banquet with from flowing to the brain. The Sheriff’s Office will
the Grace Pavilion and Jeff Gilman, executive She’s volunteered for the her daughter and three The restraint is permit- conduct an internal re-
families can pack up food director of the Redwood banquet for the past five grandchildren each year. ted under the Sheriff’s view to determine wheth-
to make their own Thanks- Gospel Mission, said they years, and plans to do so She likes the service the Office use-of-force policy er deputies followed
giving meals at home. have many partnerships again next year. Redwood Gospel Mission under specific circum- department policies.
England’s 15-month-old with local churches and “It’s just very enlighten- organizes, and her grand- stances if the deputy is Valencia said he did not
son, Carter, had pumpkin organizations to run ing,” she said. “It’s good to children enjoy the games trained in the tactic. They know how many Sheriff’s
pie smeared across his the event each year. On see you can help out your and face painting. include when deputies be- deputies were involved
face and kept grabbing Wednesday, he said there community.” Forestville resident lieve a person is violent or in Wednesday’s incident,
more handfuls with a mis- were more than 650 volun- Chris Muthall, 49, has Michelle Jacinto, 60, first shows that they intend to though he confirmed they
chievous grin. Six-year-old teers at the fairgrounds — also volunteered at the came to the event with her harm themselves, depu- were placed on admin-
Roman proudly showed and even more who helped event for the last couple husband when they were ties or others. istrative leave in accor-
off his bandage from the organize the event in the of years. Muthall, who is homeless about five years When applied incorrect- dance to Sheriff’s Office
flu shot he got just before days leading up to it. homeless, said Redwood ago. They’ve been coming ly, however, the restraint procedures after critical
their meal. Even though “(The banquet) gives an Gospel Mission has given back each year since. can turn into a chokehold incidents.
he was scared at first — opportunity for the people him so much and he want- On Wednesday, Jacinto and block the suspect’s air- “Any time force is used
his mom had to get her of this community to care ed to give back. sat down and ate her meal ways, which can be fatal. A the Sheriff’s Office takes it
shot first to show him it in a really tangible way for He loves the banquet, at a table with strangers. By chokehold was used during seriously,” Valencia said
was OK — he said that it people who have needs and he said, because it’s not the end of their meal, she the high-profile in-custody in a written statement.
just an opportunity for said they “felt like family.” death of Eric Garner in “Our thoughts are with
people to get a free meal “There’s a lot of love 2014, who was arrested by the man’s family during
— it allows people to come here and that’s what keeps officers for selling untaxed this difficult time.”
together as a community me coming back,” she said. cigarettes in New York
to enjoy the holiday. “It’s a gift.” City’s Staten Island. You can reach Staff Writ-
“It’s really important Information on whether er Nashelly Chavez at
to show people who are You can reach Staff Writer the hold was applied prop- 707-521-5203 or nashelly.
outside and low-income Chantelle Lee at 707-521- erly in the local incident chavez@pressdemocrat.
love in the winter,” said 5337 or chantelle.lee@ was not available Wednes- com. On Twitter
Maji Reinert, a Santa Rosa pressdemocrat.com. day. Marincik said it was @nashellytweets.

HOMELESS tions from the Community

CONTINUED FROM A3
with Homeless Action,
could not be immediately
reached for comment on
the step.
Sonoma County Parks
spokeswoman Meda Free-
man said the permit was
issued after consultation
with the county’s Commu-
nity Development Com-
mission and the Depart-
ment of Health Services.
The approval follows a
raucous public meeting at
which supervisors voiced
some support for sanc-
tioned encampments, at
least as a temporary solu-
tion, while also searching
for more permanent op-
Development Commission
and residents.
The paved 8.5-mile Joe
Rodota Trail leads between
Santa Rosa and Sebasto-
pol, and the affected seg-
ment west of Stony Point
Road has become a major
flashpoint over homeless-
ness, pitting the needs of
the homeless community
against the public’s right
to safely use the pathway.
Concerns shared by
neighbors, authorities
and camp residents have
risen about the spread of
untreated human waste,
substance abuse and gar-
bage. The county was even
prompted to install signs
recommending people
avoid the public trail.
At the Board of Super-
visors meeting last week,
homeless activists dis-
played a 12-foot banner re-
iterating their request to
have portable toilets set up
in the area.
In response, Supervisor
James Gore, reflecting the
frustration that has been
evident on all sides, said:
“I’m ready to see propos-
als. If you want to bring
toilets, bring toilets. I don’t
give a s--t.”
The comments capped a
spirited meeting at which
one person was kicked out
and another flipped off a
speaker.
Supervisor Lynda Hop-
kins, whose district encom-
passes the trail encamp-
ment, said county leaders,
in her view, were showing “a
renewed sense of urgency”
in addressing homelessness,
“as well as a willingness to
explore creative solutions.”
One of her predeces-
sors representing the west
county, former Supervi-
sor Ernie Carpenter, said
homelessness has grown
so visible in the county
— with camps along road-
ways, spread throughout
the lower Russian River
and on various corners of
public and private land —
that it can’t be overlooked
by local officials.
“Two years ago, they
could ignore it,” Carpenter
said. “Today, they can’t.”
Carpenter added that
he’s not saying supervisors
want to ignore it, and he
gave them credit for rec-
ognizing the problem and
looking for solutions.
In an interview Wednes-
day, Supervisor Shirlee
Zane, the board’s lon-
gest-serving member, said
she wasn’t aware of super-
visors providing specific
direction on toilets, even if
she does support the move
in the meantime.
“The direction from the
board was, ‘We’re not going
to sit here for another eight
weeks,’” Zane said, refer-
ring to the board’s desire
to land on a solution before
the new year.
You can reach Staff Writer
Tyler Silvy at 707-526-8667
or at tyler.silvy@pressde-
mocrat.com. On Twitter @
tylersilvy.

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