EPD Says Two Juveniles Injured in Yesterday’s Hostage Situation that Ended in Fatal Shooting of Suspect
HCSO on scene of the hostage situation in Eureka yesterday. [Photo by Mark McKenna]
On January 22, 2024 at approximately 05:46 a.m., the Eureka Police Department responded to a report of a male juvenile that had suffered a significant laceration to his neck needing immediate medical attention. The juvenile reported he had been assaulted by an adult male family member. Officers located the juvenile and he was transported to a local medical facility for treatment of severe but not life-threatening wounds. The juvenile told officers the assault occurred at a residence in the 1400 block of Union Street in Eureka, and that there were additional occupants and juveniles in the home who had been threatened and were in danger. Officers entered the residence and began checking for additional occupants and victims. While in the residence, officers learned the male suspect had moved the rest of the occupants into a second-story bedroom where he had barricaded himself and was holding them hostage. The officers on scene began requesting additional resources and attempted to negotiate with the suspect.
At approximately 7:41 a.m., the Eureka Police Department issued a shelter in place notification that was sent out to local residences and businesses immediately adjacent to the incident location.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team as well as the Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT) were requested and responded to the scene. Throughout the day negotiations continued until all four hostages were safely released at approximately 1:00 p.m. There was one adult female and three male juveniles, ranging in ages from 4-12 years old, removed from the residence. One of the juveniles had a large laceration to the side of his neck caused by the male suspect. All the juveniles were transported to a local medical facility and evaluated. The male juvenile with the significant laceration to his neck received treatment for his injury which was non-life threatening. The juveniles were then released into the custody of Child Welfare Services.
CNT continued to negotiate with the male suspect, who was non-compliant and refused to surrender and exit the room, for four more hours. Detectives with EPD had obtained a Ramey Warrant for the suspect’s arrest for the felony assault on the first male juvenile. At approximately 4:58 p.m., contact with the suspect was made, and an officer involved shooting (OIS) occurred. The male suspect was struck by gunfire. City Ambulance and Humboldt Bay 604 C Street ~ Eureka, CA 95501 www.ci.eureka.ca.gov/depts/police Police Business Desk (707) 441-4060 Public Information Officer (707) 672-9873 Dispatch Non-Emergency (707) 441-4044 Fire, who had been staged on scene, responded directly to the residence. Immediate life-saving measures were employed by members of the SWAT team and medical personnel. The suspect was transported to a local medical facility where he succumbed to his injuries.
The suspect has been identified as Daniel Martinez, 43 years old of Eureka.
Two members of the Humboldt County SWAT team have been identified as having fired their firearms during the OIS. Both are deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and have been placed on paid special leave, as is protocol for their agency.
The Humboldt County Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), led by the Eureka Police Department and the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office, was activated to investigate this incident. This investigation is ongoing and additional information will be released as it becomes available.
The Eureka Police Department appreciates the partnerships with the agencies that assisted with this incident: Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, Fortuna Police Department, California Highway Patrol, City Ambulance, Humboldt Bay Fire, Yurok Tribal Police, Humboldt County Child Welfare Services, Yurok Social Services, Humboldt County Behavioral Health and Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka (CARE).
Anyone with information regarding the incident is encouraged to contact Detective Donald Bailey with the Eureka Police Department Criminal Investigations Unit at 707-441-4215.
Earlier:
- Hostage Incident Ongoing in Eureka Following Early Morning Stabbing of a Juvenile
- Hostage Crisis in Eureka Ends with Officer-Involved Shooting
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Hmmm, shoot somebody get a paid vacation.
Cerebral.
I’m sure that was at the forefront of the officer’s mind and I’m sure he feels great about having to take someone’s life. ?
And you would have done what? Stand around waiting for people to get killed like in Uvalde? C’mon, what? What if you were being held at knife point, somebody already stabbed? Say a prayer, light some sage? What?
What are you even talking about? It clearly says all 4 hostages were out of the room and released before the gunfire went down…as a matter of fact, they were released 4 hours before the gun fire went down lol…he had a knife and a bunch of them had guns…probably didn’t have to kill him. Either way, you need to learn how to read.
Truly agree they didn’t have to kill him but wanted to kill him because what? They always get away with it.
Paid vacation and jumped into the epd hcso gang by kill initiation ritual these guys are beyond the law watch out they want more blood
The details surrounding the words, “contact with the suspect was made” will go a long way towards determining whether or not lethal force was necessary..
I’m really glad the suspect is dead. He slit the necks of children. Problem would be if the cops did not kill him. Because then we would have these pathetic bleeding heart “liberals” saying we need to spend tons of money on a trial and then we can rehabilitate him and then he would get back out and possibly kill a child. Fuck this guy. I’m glad he’s dead. We don’t have enough resources to throw them away on child-slashers. We should instead be spending our resources on innocent and decent people. C’mon- debate me on this one…show us how wonderful your compassion really is…
We have plenty of resources.
we don’t use them wisely.
As for how to deal with all the hate in our society,
I’ll admit, that’s a tough one.
As your comment shows, it’s endemic.
I think your empathy is misdirected. I personally dont think someone willing to slit the neck of a child has any redeeming qualities.
So lazy and simple an attitude as that will never help us as a species learn what drives people to do such things …we know more about flying to the moon and mars than about what conditions get a person through childhood into a productive, constructive, contented adulthood and which cultural /community aspects are best in the long run…actually we do know a lot yet apply very little cause priorities are buying junk, over consumerism, fake fingernails and plastic art and binge watching and even grown ups addicted to games, big gas guzzling vehicles for over “protection” and status rather than for necessary work and the list goes on; priorities people.
lol going to the moon what? You believe we know how to get to the moon ahhahaha
It doesn’t matter what you personally think, because you don’t know anything about the situation.
You automatically assume that America is always wrong, always , and the police are always wrong and that is a form of endemic hatred. Physician heal thyself
None of those assumptions were in D’Tucker Jen’s comment.
My comment was based on a post by DTJ in another forum where he talked about Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan as justified in slaughtering their way through Asia and Europe and it was none of our business. We should have stayed out of WWII.
If I have misinterpreted D’TuckerJeb’s political views, then I am sorry but he referred to Japan’s base in Alaska as some sort of passing phenomenon, not part of the Rape of Nanking (Iris Chang) and murder of millions across Asia while their ally Nazi Germany did the same in Europeans Africa.
Do I have the wrong guy? Left wing ad Right wing extremists will take this country down.
I never said any of what you accuse me of saying.
I can’t even read your ignorant responses. You are a foolish person.
Anything to belong it seems our species is cursed with. Belonging is truly vital and yet there seems a gluttony switch that gets turned, any and all means spun as justifying the ends. Also daddy issues unexplored and projected onto LE. Hate is usually a result of pain and fear of pain which in turn come from either too high expectations/privledge and/or having been brutalized one to many times, not the those are entirely mutually exclusive..in fact the combo creates the most hateful it seems.
I generally agree with you on this one, this one time anyway. In the long run, though, between your extreme right wing views and D’Tucker Jebs extreme left-wing views, the American Experiment may be doomed.
A simple statement that we have resources we just don’t use them wisely makes him extreme leftist? The American experiment sounds so thought out and grandiose …it was nothing more than people fleeing bad deeds of others and/or their own bad deeds and ambitions…it was, we have been terribly flawed and if we haven’t learned that from history we cannot even begin to hope to adjust and improve and we are nothing more than narcissists with an Achilles heel that will be our demise.
What’s your stance on abortion?
If we allow police to be jury, judge, executioners then awareness and reality will not be common sense until the consequences boomerang back to those who have allowed it, those who do not even dare question LE practices. Is LE so fragile they can’t handle being questioned and being expected to follow a code of ethics and laws? Blind followers will have to suffer, have family members suffer, witness atrocities directly etc. after what they advocated for unexpectedly turns on them and it will, it always does in facetious and police states; it takes a long time and much torture and death. Prevention not only worth a pound of cure but also cure is not possible down the road when so much anguish explodes and/or implodes.
Too bad you’re not dead too. Why not two less crappy people in the world? That’s better than one.
You don’t think we should have fought WWII, that the Japanese were opening a ski resort in the Aleutians, that Japan and Germany were just fooling us about world-domination. So the cops are instantly assumed to be guilty. Your thinly veiled insinuation is obvious.
I love the way you assigned be positions I do not hold based upon comments I did not make.
Yep, that which you note is the difference between reaction and response.
That wasn’t you? I’ll see if I can find the post. If I hit it wrong, then I humbly apologize. So what DO you think about the U.S.role in WWII? Should we have just let Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany divide the world between them? Did Truman really have any choice with Hiroshima and Nagasaki given the situation that Japan created through its own insanity? Tell me how wrong I am.
“Whjat Japan did in the territories they conquered was terrible.” https://kymkemp.com/2024/01/20/high-flying-legal-drama-court-to-mull-earth-flags-supremacy-in-arcata/#comment-1692640
I am just now seeing my typo.
Whjat? How embarrassing.
What a comparison for one thing. If you were to go there we’d have to ask questions too like why did Einstein regret taking part in helping create the nuclear bomb and admitting he did so out of excessive fear. No matter dropping two of them on civilians. How about the escalation during that war of dehumanizing propaganda contributing to unnecessary horror?
There wasn’t an army of shooters in the house no barrage of gun fire coming from the house and no one is saying LE is absolutely wrong just …gasp….daring to question.
I’d be curious to know what the hostages/family members i think, felt about the situation and again no matter LE should not be jury, judge and executioners and giving anyone too much power and too little transparency and accountability leads to inevitable abuses of power.
God damn, chill out Eureka.
Anyone who purposely injures children and also holds them hostage deserves exactly what he got. He will never get another chance to do it again.
I pray these children get the help they need and are able to have good lives.
Shoot first and ask questions never seems you simplistic solution. Do you ask what his children want? Those involved in the hostage situation? Was there help not available before this incident? Maybe he needs to be locked up forever and his background studied extensively and not under torturous conditions. According to your reasoning we might as well start killing children who were abused since so many of them end up on the streets and killing themselves or hurting others. Not all abuse is the same…some abuse and conditions in which suffered and treated leads to perpetrators and other abuse and more importantly conditions in which suffered and treated (of which there are at least 50-100 factors such as age, number of incidents, acknowledgement, community and/or family collusion to name a few) lead to people who get through abuse Ok enough and other conditions create people who kill themselves slowly through drugs and alcohol or quickly. People who advocate the killing of the perpetrator in this situation act like they are playing a damn video game.
Thank you LEO… job well done!
My up or down votes aren’t working again. Up.
Just saying and never asking questions.
Hmmm, seems I heard about a prior incident involving two yutes at the Sac-O-Suds.
He took the long way to suicide.
Messing with kids on his way out. What a creep.
I hope everyone involved feels completely guilt free
People rarely stab kids and commit suicide when they’re at the top of their game.
I don’t know the details of what was going on, but it is unfortunate that he will never have the chance to get help, to get better, and to try and make ammends.
A sad situation all the way around.
At 43 he’s had a few years to get it together.
And a few years to lose it.
And you bite dogs…LOL. “Get it together” with zero mental health help and much of what is there is damaging and god know what else? Shot first and ask questions never just like a video game, eh?
OMG- you love children- slashers! You care so much NOT… We are seeing now daily how incredibly corrupt is your concept of compassion…Weird!
Farce for sure. I know horrendous child abuse like you can’t even imagine AND i know we are doing little for the children nor the adults they become though so easy to comment here about “Oh the poor children” when we choose to use our resources for fake fingernails and hair dye and video games and changing fashion every year and big fat vehicles not needed for doing heavy lifting and to which people feel entitled and so many other things rather than funding and hiring enough people to help others ..first things first people; priorities.
Being down and out is no excuse to hold your family hostage and cut the throats of your nephew,WTF
smoking is not an excuse for lung cancer nor a guarantee of it AND it is a vital factor. Are we not even going to try to understand ? Understanding does not mean the perpetrator should be let out into society it does mean we are trying to learn how to avoid so many broken people filling up our streets and jails all of whom were children and instantly at 18 no one gives a shit and actually not much care before that..I’ve worked in the foster system and our culture doesn’t fund it nor provide adequate care (see 60 minutes Australia entitled children sold in America or America selling its children or something like that).
right…Im sure after a short sentence he would come back to society fixed and ready to do good for those around him.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
Jail rarely makes someone a better person- especially someone who suffers from mental health issues.
My point exactly.
Better or not, a violently insane person locked up can’t hurt the general public anymore. What a concept!
They let out violent offenders all the time and incarcerate innocent people; the system needs changed and it is hard work not a video game with simplistic quick fixes like so many commenters here are resorting to.
Yes in addition to not reflexively advocating death, the environment in which we keep people deemed dangerous to society needs to be radically overhauled as we are currently just producing more criminals and focused on smaller things while letting out repeat violent offenders. Gangs created to survive the prison environment. It’s a mess…i hope improving and meanwhile this is heavy lifting…just like required for any real lasting improvement and who knows if it will work and yet not trying better hasn’t worked.
No maybe he has to be kept out of society …this is not a simplistic video game. This is not an either /or light switch though that may feel nice and easy in the short run. It is simply 1. Questioning anytime LE kill or injure someone and more transparency and accountability in general for LE 2. If we just killed people with cancer we’d never made the progress we have on understanding its causes and treatments. This is about trying to learn and prevent and treat 3. We killed natives and African americans and most of the ecosystem upon which we depend …hows that working out for us? We’ve also been killing criminals forever and that isn’t improving things, never did. Of course in immediate self defense is one thing.
Yes and what do his children and those hostages feel about what could have prevented this and what should have been done? Not that they like LE are jury, judge etc. AND people advocating for death of the perpetrator act like they are playing a simplistic video game. For all we know the hostages may be angry with how police handled the situation and may not speak up out of fear. Also, while it seems a small point, he did not stab anyone if i read correctly and no one ended up in hospital long which although horrible things to do to anyone and especially children such details are vital in assessing and learning from what happened.
I’m curious why SWAT felt the need to bust in on the man alone in the room. Couldn’t they just wait him out?
I’m also curious about the adult female and three juveniles. Mom and her kids? His kids and his girlfriend? Is that why they went to Child Welfare instead of with the woman? Or was she kicked to the curb while the house was processed so the kids stayed gods-know-where for the night?
They really do put the absolute minimum of info in these press releases.
You mean like Uvalde? Wait him out. Don’t piss him off. Maybe he’ll get tired or learn how to cut throats more efficiently. We are effing doomed.
In Uvalde, the person was killing people.
This person had already released the hostages.
Apples and oranges.
Outburst vs slowing down and contemplating reality…as D’Tucker Jebs just did and clarified.
Not all of them were her children. Child welfare services was the right call in this situation.
Thank you for being a person who asks questions rather than act with mob mentality or like this is a simple video game rather than many lives affected; your comment gives me some hope. Our foster system is underfunded and henious yet so many commenters advocating execution of the perpetrator (if that what is was) as if they care about children so damn much but meanwhile choose all sorts of material things and activities rather than be active in civil duty and community to help families and children and other vulnerable.
Can you imagine the high level retelling of this event over donuts in the break room. Mmmmm like a pack of hyenas reliving the glory of the hunt!!!! It’s as if eureka was a Hollywood set for ‘’Merica Most Wanted or Idiocracy Part 2. . Can’t scrub up Humfolk County no matter how you Hesseltine it.
I do believe much of that goes on within LE and they will say, if pressed when charged as with the horrible and violent text messages EDP got caught sending one another while on duty, it is how they deal with pain…really cause the perpetrator was also dealing with their pain poorly.