On Thursday, Feb. 16, Healdsburg Police received a call at about 8pm of vandalism in progress on Ward Street, in an older residential area off Healdsburg Avenue. The vandalism was tagging or graffiti, according to Police Chief Matt Jenkins, related to a subset of Sureno gang activity. Although the suspects drove away as the call was in progress, officers were dispatched and started checking nearby areas that had a history of prior vandalism.
At Railroad Park, at the intersection of Front Street and Healdsburg Avenue, an officer saw two individuals standing in a dark corner. When he attempted to contact them, one of the subjects began to run away. After a brief struggle with the officer and a back-up officer who had arrived on scene, the subject was detained and searched, during which officers located a loaded gun in his pants.
A search of the second suspect located several pre-packaged baggies of suspected fentanyl, so presumed because of its powder/rock form, Jenkins said. “The officers suspected that the substance was fentanyl based on its appearance and the statement of the suspects,” he continued.
A 17-year-old juvenile resident of Healdsburg was arrested for possession of a loaded firearm in public and resisting arrest. The second man, 25-year-old Miguel Angel Guzman of Geyserville, was arrested on suspicion of possession of fentanyl for sale.
“It is not clear that the two individuals were directly involved with the vandalism; thus they were not charged with the vandalism,” said Jenkins.
The arrests follow by a little over a week the arrest of James Biocca of Healdsburg in Lake County for possession of fentanyl. Jenkins did not know of any connection between Biocca and these two latest arrests, and said fentanyl has been found in Healdsburg since at least 2009.
