The Incident Halted Traffic for Over an Hour
A homeless man was arrested by authorities on Monday after threatening a lifeguard with a metal rod and behaving frenzied upon the Santa Monica bluffs; an incident which shut down traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway for over an hour.
Michael Vicent Parrett, 38, was on the roof of a lifeguard tower around 11 a.m. before jumping off and thrusting the pole repeatedly at the victim who dodged it without injury. Once officers located the suspect along Palisades Beach Road, Parrett ran with the metallic weapon into the bluffs that overlook the PCH.
Shortly after 1 p.m., as Parrett was perched on the sandy cliffs, California Highway Patrol closed the highway’s northbound and southbound traffic due to the risk of him falling.
A Crisis Negotiations team arrived on scene, engaging in an hour-and-a-half dialogue with Parrett to no avail. The disheveled and distraught suspect, while maintaining possession of his weapon, yelled out to officers that he would “not give up without a fight” and that they “would need to shoot him before he would give up”, according to SMPD.
Several videos posted on the Citizen App documented the event; showing several parked police vehicles clustered on PCH facing the direction of the suspect, along with a firetruck which extended its ladder up towards the bluffs. In one video, a man can be heard saying “Throw the weapon away.” In another, a woman can be heard saying “Please come down.”
It was with the help of a police K9 that Parrett was finally taken into custody.
Once apprehended, authorities sent the suspect to be evaluated at a local hospital. He was later booked at the Santa Monica Jail for 245 (a) 1 PC – Assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to inflict great bodily injury.
