On Thursday, Feb. 2, at 8:01 a.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the 900 block of Ocean Avenue in order to investigate a report of threats.
When they arrived, the officers spoke with both the victim and the suspects, who were roommates.
What they learned was that the victim had “known” the suspect for several months and had given him permission to stay with him in his apartment about a week prior to the incident. At about 4 a.m. on the morning of the above date, the suspect, who was in the apartment and was intoxicated and behaving in an unruly manner, woke up the victim.
The victim had then made a request to the suspect to begin sleeping, but the suspect had (unreasonably?) responded to this (reasonable) request by removing a box cutter from his backpack and showing it to the victim.
The suspect had accompanied this visual display of the weapon with a verbal statement that informed the victim that he had intended to cut the victim with the box cutter. The suspect then left, but returned shortly thereafter with the intent of collecting some of his belongings, at which time the victim, his senses sharpened by the earlier experience involving the box cutter, became fearful that the suspect was going to cut him up.
After hearing this story, the officers asked the suspect if they could search him, and he agreed. Upon searching the suspect the officers discovered the box cutter upon his person. The officers subsequently arrested this 36-year-old Santa Monica resident and he was charged with criminal threats and exhibiting a deadly weapon. His bail was set at $50,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
