Police draw weapons on Park Street following gun report
Police draw weapons on Park Street following gun report
Photo by Donna Eyestone.
Visitors to a crowded corner of Park Street said they got a scare Saturday when police drew their weapons on a man they said they believed to be armed with a gun, sending some scrambling for cover.
No arrests were made as a result of the incident, Alameda Police Sgt. Dave Pascoe said.
Dave Etayo said he was drinking coffee on a bench outside Peet’s Coffee and Tea at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday when police cruisers pulled up to the curb and drew their guns on an African American man after he hesitated when police asked him to get down on the ground, Etayo said. Etayo said he ducked behind a car, fearful he’d be hit if weapons were fired.
The Alamedan’s videographer, Donna Eyestone, was staffing a cookie booth near the corner of Park Street and Central Avenue with her daughter and other Girl Scouts when the cruisers pulled up, she said. Eyestone said she and another parent quickly escorted the frightened girls into a nearby restaurant; she stayed with the booth and captured the encounter in this photograph.
Alameda Police Sgt. Dave Pascoe said a trio of cruisers responded to a report of a dispute and that the caller said they were being threatened by a man with a gun. He said police drew their guns because the man was uncooperative when police arrived.
Police handcuffed the man but later released him after determining he was unarmed, Pascoe said. He said the man had been defending his father in a verbal dispute.
Pascoe said police don’t have any hard-and-fast rules dictating the circumstances under which they pull guns.
“It’s on a case by case basis,” Pascoe said.
Pascoe said some people tell police that a gun is present in an effort to get a faster response, though he did not say if that was the case Saturday.
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