A knife-wielding homeless woman was arrested on Friday, Nov. 25, after threatening a local store employee.
At 11:40 am officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to attend to a report of a homeless person who was causing trouble inside a business located in the 1400 block of Wilshire Blvd.
The officers were told that the female suspect had entered the store and threatened an employee.
As the employee had exited the building the suspect had then locked the employee out of the store.
When the first officer arrived at the scene, the employee was still standing outside the rear entrance to the store.
Shortly afterwards additional officers arrived at the location and they were able to enter the business via the front entrance.
Upon entering the officers discovered the suspect and as they were attempting to take the suspect into custody, the suspect became hostile and combative.
In the ensuing struggle the suspect kicked one of the officers twice in the leg but the officers were able to overpower the suspect and place her into the back of a police vehicle.
The officers then spoke with the store employee who told them that the suspect had initially entered the store and had begun to rant without form or logic about various celebrities.
The employee added that he had asked this woman to leave but she had responded by saying that she would not leave, “until everyone dies…I have a knife!”
The employee said that at that point the suspect had produced a small towel from inside of her pants and had started to wipe the counter with the towel.
The employee told the officers that he had watched in disgust as the suspect performed this strange act but that the suspect had suddenly picked up a glass mason jar and a glass vase and had hurled them at him.
The two items had narrowly missed hitting the employee.
He stated that the suspect had then smashed up numerous items inside the store including a computer monitor and a telephone.
The officers arrested this female homeless person, and she was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, and felony vandalism.
Bail was set at $50,000. Incidentally, the officers did discover that the woman had indeed been in possession of a knife at the time of the incident.
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.
