A Willits man was arrested earlier this week after reportedly trying to grab a deputy's weapon during a standoff, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office reported.
According to the MCSO, deputies responded to a large property in the 10000 block of Hearst Willits Road in Willits around 11:20 a.m. July 26 when it was reported that a resident there, identified as 56-year-old Trevor Williams, had negligently discharged a firearm in the vicinity of a juvenile, and was also illegally possessing the firearm due to a restraining order against him.
When deputies arrived and tried to speak to Williams, he reportedly "became hostile, closed his gate and rode back to his residence on his ATV." Seeing that Williams was "arming himself with several firearms," the deputies began evacuating the other residents from the property.
Deputies then called for back-up, and for Sheriff Matt Kendall to respond as a negotiator, as he had been specifically requested by the suspect, who was reportedly observed gathering and placing on his ATV various items such as "firearms, ammunition, and alcohol," and becoming increasingly "verbally hostile towards MCSO personnel."
Williams then reportedly "left his residence on his ATV and disappeared out into his 7,700 acre ranch," with MCSO personnel not giving chase. Shortly thereafter, Williams was reportedly "spotted low crawling through a creek bed in an attempt to flank MCSO personnel (while being armed with) three handguns and a scoped high powered rifle."
When the suspect then "took up a position of cover behind a piece of heavy machinery and began pointing his rifle towards" deputies, he was ordered several times to drop his rifle. After dropping his rifle and walking toward the deputies with his hands up in "an apparent gesture of surrender," Williams then reportedly "turned around and walked away from the deputies, (then) again appeared to be trying to flank them."
When Williams again walked toward deputies with his hands up, a sergeant tried to disarm the suspect, at which point Williams allegedly "grabbed the sergeant's hand as he tried to remove the handguns from Williams' waistband. Williams then grabbed one of the handguns from his waistband and also grabbed the sergeant's issued firearm."
The MCSO reports that during the ensuing struggle with WIlliams, the sergeant "maintained control of his firearm and Williams' handgun, (then) Williams was pinned against a fence during the struggle which allowed another deputy to remove all the handguns from Williams' waistband and his right hand."
Williams was then taken into custody and transported to a local hospital. After being medically cleared, he was booked into Mendocino County Jail on suspicion of assault on a peace officer with a firearm, resisting or threatening an officer, attempting to disarm an officer, child endangerment and violating a restraining order. He was held under $500,000 bail.
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