California State Parks and the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department have launched a search operation at Van Damme State Beach for an elderly man reported missing. The missing man reportedly suffers from Parkinson’s disease.
Scanner traffic from 2:25 p.m. revealed that State Parks officials requested assistance from fire department personnel.
The fire department was asked to deploy their jet skis to scour the shoreline of the popular beach along State Route 1, just south of the town of Mendocino.
UPDATE 2:49 p.m.:Scanner traffic indicates the missing man is 70 years old, 5′ 9″ tall, and was last seen wearing black shorts. He has not been seen since going for a swim a few hours ago.
UPDATE 3:27 p.m.: California State Parks have requested a deputy from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office respond to Van Damme State Park regarding the missing man.
UPDATE 3:36 p.m.: Sadly, the Incident Commander reported to dispatch the missing man was found deceased.
Please remember that this story is unfolding. Information is being reported as we gather it. However, some of the information coming from witnesses and initial official reports could be wrong. We will do our best to get the facts but, in the case that something is inaccurate, we will update with correct information as soon as we can.
]]>The following is a press release from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. The information has not been proven in a court of law and any individuals described should bepresumedinnocent until proven guilty:
On 06-29-2024 at approximately 1107 hours, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center began receiving calls from several residents in the area of the 5200 block of Blue Lake Road, within the Brooktrails Township in Willits, CA. Callers were reporting a male subject causing a disturbance in the area, with the sounds of yelling and possibly fighting.
Sheriff’s Office Deputies were not in the immediate area, and they arrived approximately 20 minutes after the initial calls to Dispatch. Upon arrival, and at the request of one caller, the responding deputies went to a house in the 5200 block of Blue Lake Road to check on the resident. Upon arrival at the residence, Deputies observed that the front windows appeared to be broken out, and there was apparent blood in and around the front of the house. Deputies checked the residence and located a female victim inside the living room who appeared to have suffered injuries likely caused by a violent assault. Deputies ensured there were no further victims or individuals in the residence and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)and administered first aid while summoning emergency medical assistance.
The 77-year-old female victim succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene. While deputies were at the scene, a vehicle arrived and the suspect, Michael Coleman, was in the passenger seat. Deputies determined there was evidence that Coleman was involved in the violent assault and detained him at the scene without incident. Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Detectives were summoned to the scene to take over the investigation. Coleman was ultimately booked into the Mendocino County Jail on a charge of Homicide (187(a) PC) where he is being held on a no-bail status.This case is actively being investigated and will likely result in additional charges being requested through the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office. The final cause and manner of death is pending an autopsy and toxicology reports.
Investigators from the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office, Ukiah Police Department, Willits Police Department, California Highway Patrol, CalFire Prevention Law Enforcement personnel, the California Department of Justice Crime Lab in Santa Rosa, and Department of Justice Criminalists from Sacramento are all assisting with this ongoing investigation.
Anybody with information related to this investigation is encouraged to call the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center at 707-463-4086. Information can also be provided anonymously by utilizing the non-emergency tip-line at 707-234-2100.
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Two women are reportedly trapped in a vehicle that plunged into the Russian River this evening south of Hopland. First responders are converging on the area to conduct rescue operations.
Scanner traffic indicates that the incident began around 7:00 PM along southbound Highway 101 near the Geysers Exit when a teenage boy was seen screaming for help and walking into the roadway.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) was promptly notified and dispatched units and the Hopland Fire Department was alerted to assist with the rescue operation.
UPDATE 7:28 p.m.: Scanner traffic from the scene indicates that the incident is “not as reported.” The Incident Commander said there was no vehicle in the water.
Please remember that this story is unfolding. Information is being reported as we gather it. However, some of the information coming from witnesses and initial official reports could be wrong. We will do our best to get the facts but, in the case that something is inaccurate, we will update with correct information as soon as we can.
A new fire has erupted near Powder Horn Road and Donkey Hill Road in Hidden Valley in Lake County. According to a tweet from CAL FIRE LNU, the blaze, reported at approximately 5:35 p.m., was about one acre of grass with a moderate rate of spread. One structure is under threat.
However as of 5:55 p.m., the Incident Commander is reporting the fire is now three acres and multiple homes are threatened. Evacuations are being requested.
Local firefighting crews, including CAL FIRE/South Lake County Fire, are on the scene, working to contain the flames and protect the threatened property. Air support has been dispatched, with two tankers, a helicopter, and an air attack team responding to assist in combating the fire from above.
Further updates will be provided as more information becomes available.
Please remember that information gathered from initial reports is subject to revision as more facts become available.
UPDATE 6:16 p.m.: Although firefighters are getting a handle on the fire and the fire is currently approximately 25% contained, an evacuation warning has been issued. Alert California cameras show that the smoke is dissipating.
UPDATE 6:21 p.m.: Air craft is being released from the fire as ground crews are mopping up.
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Law enforcement discovered a homicide today in the 52000 block of Blue Lake Rd., a remote area northwest of Willits. According to initial reports from scanner communications, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) and California Highway Patrol (CHP) responded to the scene after a call for help came in about 11:23 a.m.
The incident began with reports of a male suspect wielding an axe, killing chickens at another residence on Blue Lake Road. As law enforcement responded, the suspect fled into a residence where he barricaded himself. They successfully took him into custody fairly quickly though.
Upon clearing the home, law enforcement discovered a female victim, initially reported as possibly deceased and also as a homicide. Medical personnel were urgently summoned to the scene, and lifesaving efforts including CPR were initiated by authorities which temporarily revived the victim. A medevac helicopter was dispatched.
However, despite these efforts, the victim’s condition tragically deteriorated, and she was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Details regarding the exact nature of the injuries sustained by the victim have not yet been disclosed, and it remains unclear whether the axe allegedly wielded by the suspect played a role in the incident. The identity of the victim has not been released.
Law enforcement is investigating and details beyond what we’ve reported are not available. It is important to remember in breaking news:
Information is being reported as we gather it. However, some of the information coming from witnesses and initial official reports could be wrong. We will do our best to get the facts but, in the case that something is inaccurate, we will update with correct information as soon as we can.
]]>The following is a press release from the Ukiah Police Department. The information has not been proven in a court of law and any individuals described should bepresumedinnocent until proven guilty:
On 6/28/24 at approximately 1650 hours, UPD officers were dispatched to the intersection of Orchard Ave. and E. Perkin St. regarding a multi-vehicle collision with injuries. Fire and medical personnel were also dispatched.
Immediately upon arrival, officers saw two vehicles were involved, and one vehicle had sheared a fire hydrant off its permanent mount. Water was gushing from the broken hydrant causing minor flooding to the intersection. Officers closed a portion of the intersection for safety. City of Ukiah water personnel were called to the scene to shut the water off in the area.
UPD Officers conducted a preliminary investigation and suspected the at-fault driver of driving under the influence of alcohol. Due to the severity of the situation, the Ukiah PD designated Traffic Officer was called to the scene to investigate the collision. Based on the investigation, officers learned that a Toyota Tundra driven by 59-year-old Jason Hamby was traveling at a high rate of speed northbound on S. Orchard and failed to stop at the red light. Hamby continued through the intersection and collided with a Toyota Corolla that was turning right onto N. Orchard Ave. from E. Perkins St.
The Tundra continued north after colliding with the Corolla and veered off the roadway crashing into afMajor damage was caused to both vehicles and the driver of the Corolla was transported to the emergency room at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley for treatment. Hamby and his female passenger were uninjured.
Upon speaking with Hamby, it was suspected he was driving under the influence of alcohol and was placed under arrest for felony violation of 23153(a) CVC, DUI causing injury. He was transported to the hospital before incarceration and was then booked at the Mendocino County Jail.
As always, UPD’s mission is to make Ukiah as safe as possible. If you would like to know more about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for telephone, cellphone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website; http://www.ukiahpolice.com.
Previous Coverage
Driver Flees After Crashing into Fire Hydrant in Ukiah
On their last day on the Mendocino Coast, scientists from the California Academy of Sciences found an elusive predator that’s almost wasted away in the wild. Aside from the occasional uni-loving human, the pycnopodia sea star is the one creature that will eat purple urchin, which have devoured most of the bull kelp off the California coast. Most wild pycnopodia succumbed to a wasting disease that started tearing through the population in 2014. But one young celebrity member of the species puts in regular appearances off the headlands in Mendocino.
The scientists were in town for a bioblitz called Snapshot Cal Coast, an effort to document near-shore species that’s been taking place every solstice since 2016. It started in response to the warm water blob that began heating the waters right around the same time the wasting disease wiped out the starfish. Scientists use the iNaturalist app and try to encourage nature-lovers to do the same, to increase the data set that informs their studies of climate change and species’ range.
This is the last Snapshot event for Alison Young. She’s co-director of the Center for Biodiversity and Community Science at the Cal Academy, and she was part of the effort to start the Snapshot Cal Coast initiative. Just before low tide on Tuesday morning, she stood on a bluff overlooking the blustery sea and described the object of the day’s quest. To her knowledge, informed by a recent upload on the iNaturalist app, the pycnopodia had been spotted a few days prior to the bioblitz. “It’s a relatively small sunflower star,” she began; “maybe slightly bigger than an urchin, which is exciting.” It is yellowish-brown, like much of its surroundings, and doesn’t yet have the two dozen or so arms that the species is capable of developing.
The water was too rough for diving, but about two dozen scientists made their way down the path on foot and prepared to wade through the tidepools for a glimpse of the pycnopodia, whose voracious appetite is key to restoring the ecosystem. For all its charm and beauty, it is not a dainty eater, according to Kylie Lev, a curator at Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco who is raising captive pycnopodia in an effort to learn more about them.
Like many sea stars, the pycnopodia has one opening in its body, which it uses both to eat and expel waste from its body. “They can eject parts of their stomach to sit on top of their food,” Lev recounted. They pre-digest it, then bring the food as well as their stomachs back into their bodies. Lev calls them “garbage disposals of the sea.”
Within about an hour and a half of scientists hitting the beach, a cry went up from a cave that’s only available to terrestrial beings during low tide. Lisa Larkin, an animal care manager at the Steinhart Aquarium, had spotted the diminutive 12-armed star, which is not quite big enough yet to intimidate the local urchin. The star-seekers had already scoured the pool in the cave, but Larkin “came back when it was quieter, and he was just sitting right there.” She recalled that she had seen some in the wild in the 2010’s, “pre-wasting. This is my first one I’ve seen in the wild since then,” she marveled. “It’s so incredible.”
The pycnopodia is utterly unlike the other seastars in the tidepools: the lanky-long-legged brittle star, the lush fat-limbed ochre star, or even the ubiquitous orange and white bat star, which sometimes has six arms. One unfortunate small bat star appeared to be on the menu for a swarm of purple urchin. While its five-or-six-armed relatives may occasionally lift the tip of a limb from the surface of a rock, the pycnopodia scurries along in a huge rush to drop its belly over one of the many things in the water that don’t move fast.
Dr. Elora Lopez-Nandam, who is designing the research questions for the genetic studies of the captive pycnopodia at Steinhart, watched the wild star as it hunted along the edges of a rock outcropping. She estimates it is six months to two years old.
“This little individual gives us a lot of hope, because if there’s one, there’s got to be more,” she reasoned, as scientists and dedicated civilian tidepoolers gathered around, exclaiming and snapping photos of the little predator. “Potentially just right out here where the waves are breaking, and we’re not able to see them. But we hope that they’re there, and that they’re reproducing.” Once it’s bigger and scientists have permits to take a small genetic sample of its tissue, she hopes to sequence its DNA and further the understanding of the species along the Mendocino coast.
The much sought-after starfish fluttered photogenically, appearing unfazed by the attention it was receiving. Do they have personalities? “I’ve only just met this one,” Lopez-Nandam qualified; “but I think it’s very charismatic. It seems gregarious. I haven’t met too many other pycnopodias so I can’t compare it. But I’m sure that they all have different ways of being in the world.”
]]>The following is a press release issued by CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit:
The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Mendocino Unit is suspending residential outdoor burn permits. This suspension will take effect on Monday, July 1, 2024, at 12:01 a.m. and suspends all residential outdoor burning of landscape debris such as branches and leaves.
After another wet winter and above-average snowpack, warming temperatures and winds are quickly drying out the abundant annual grass crop. The increasing fire danger posed by the high volume of dead grass and hotter, drier conditions in the region is prompting CAL FIRE to suspend all burn permits for outdoor residential burning within the State Responsibility Area of Mendocino County.
Since January 1, 2024, CAL FIRE and firefighters across the state have already responded to over 2,156 wildfires. While outdoor burning of landscape debris by homeowners is no longer allowed, CAL FIRE is asking residents to take that extra time to ensure that they are prepared for wildfires by maintaining a minimum of 100 feet of Defensible Space around every home and buildings on their property and being prepared to evacuate if the time comes.
While outdoor burning of landscape debris by homeowners is no longer allowed, CAL FIRE is asking residents to ensure that they are prepared for wildfires by maintaining a minimum of 100 feet of defensible space around every home and buildings on their property and being prepared to evacuate if the time comes.
Here are some tips to help prepare homes and property:
- Clear all dead and or dying vegetation 100 feet from around all structures.
- Landscape with fire resistant plants and non-flammable ground cover.
- Find alternative ways to dispose of landscape debris like chipping or hauling it to a biomass energy or green waste facility.
The department may issue restricted temporary burning permits if there is an essential reason due to public health and safety. Agriculture, land management, fire training, and other industrial type burning may proceed if a CAL FIRE official inspects the burn site and issues a special permit.
The suspension of burn permits for residential landscape debris does not apply to campfires within organized campgrounds or on private property. Campfires may be permitted if the campfire is maintained in such a manner as to prevent its spread to the wildland. A campfire permit can be obtained at local fire stations or online atPreventWildfireCA.org.
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A traffic collision occurred at 4:45 p.m. at the intersection of Ukiah’s South Orchard Avenue and East Perkins Street.
Scanner traffic indicates the incident involved a vehicle crashing into a fire hydrant and the driver reportedly fled the scene on foot.
Two patients were reported injured, and two ambulances were requested to the scene for medical assistance.
UPDATE 5:05 p.m.: An image sent to us shows water flooding the intersection significantly slowing traffic. The photographer estimated there is 2′ of water in the roadway and told us they witnessed a truck had come to rest on top of the broken fire hydrant.
Drivers are encouraged to find alternative routes around the affected area.
Please remember that this story is unfolding. Information is being reported as we gather it. However, some of the information coming from witnesses and initial official reports could be wrong. We will do our best to get the facts but, in the case that something is inaccurate, we will update with correct information as soon as we can.
]]>The following is a press release from the Fort Bragg Police Department. The information has not been proven in a court of law and any individuals described should bepresumedinnocent until proven guilty:
On June 27, 2024, at approximately 2:30 AM, Fort Bragg police officers were conducting extra patrol in the 500 block of S. Harrison Street due to recent thefts in the area.
While patrolling, officers observed a suspicious subject who appeared to be hiding and lying next to a parked vehicle. The subject was wearing dark clothing and a mask. When officers attempted to contact the subject, they immediately fled on foot. With the assistance of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, officers and deputies pursued the suspect for several blocks, but ultimately lost sight of him. Officers searched where the suspect was first seen hiding and found a loaded unregistered 9-millimeter firearm and a loaded high-capacity 9-millimeter magazine hidden under a parked vehicle.
Approximately 45 minutes later, while continuing to check the area, officers located a 17-year-old juvenile suspect running through the area in dark clothing wearing a mask. The juvenile suspect was about one block from where the firearm was located.
The juvenile was arrested for the following violations: 647(F) PC (public intoxication) and 9.76.020 of the Fort Bragg Municipal Code (juvenile violating curfew). Additional felony charges are pending fingerprinting results from the found 9-millimeter firearm and magazine.
During the foot pursuit, one Fort Bragg police officer sustained minor injuries, was treated at theAdventist Health Emergency Room, and is expected to make a full recovery.
Chief Neil Cervenka said, “I am very proud of our team. This type of proactive patrol efforts by our night shift officers is what prevents crime and ensures our community can sleep peacefully.”
Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to contact Officer Baker of the Fort Bragg Police Department at (707)961-2800 ext 226.
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