By Sean Garmire
The Eureka Times-Standard
HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. — A standoff between police and a man barricaded in a McKinleyville trailer park duplex ended without injury after more than an hour Thursday afternoon.
Dozens of armed police filled McKinleyville Trailer Park. Their weapons were drawn as they waited and watched a duplex door.
Barricaded inside the duplex was 50-year-old Mark Ghirardo, who retreated into the house after a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy confronted him about reports that he had been hanging a small puppy by the collar and threatening to injure it.
When authorities responded to the residence at about 1:30 p.m., Sheriff’s Lt. George Cavinta said Ghirardo was confrontational and threatened the officer, making a gesture behind his back as if reaching for a weapon.
According to Cavinta, it was the second time authorities responded to the residence Thursday -- the first occurred earlier after reports of a “family disturbance” between Ghirardo and his son.
After about an hour and a half, police attempted to establish communication with a loud speaker. Shortly after the officer’s commands were heard over the system, the front door was thrown open and Ghirardo exited, walking quickly out into the trailer court with open hands raised out at his sides.
Police commanded him to lay on the ground.
He complied and was surrounded and handcuffed at about 3 p.m.
Ghirardo was unarmed and appeared to be wearing black and white face paint around his left eye. As police walked him to an awaiting Sheriff’s SUV, Ghirardo laughed and said, “Thanks for giving me a lift,” to the officers as they placed him in the vehicle.
“Obviously he’s in some type of capacity that he’s not thinking straight,” Cavinta said after Ghirardo was secured inside a police vehicle. “I’m just glad it ended up the way it did.”
Cavinta said responding officers saw a notice of eviction hanging on the duplex front door.
A cursory search of the residence did not reveal weapons or drugs, but police responders with the Sheriff’s Office, Yurok Tribal Police and Trinidad Police Department, as well as California Highway Patrol, continued searching the premise after Ghirardo was taken away.
Neighbor John Brown sat in his front yard lawn chair watching the standoff. A leash ran from his hand to the neck of a pit bull puppy -- the same dog Ghirardo allegedly tried to injure.
Brown said Wednesday Ghirardo had intentionally dropped the puppy on its head, and the dog ran away, only to return to Brown’s trailer Thursday.
“He come over here with a knife,” Brown said gesturing to the dog. “He was gonna slit its throat.”
Cavinta said police did not observe Ghirardo threatening the puppy with a knife, but a steak knife was found in the driveway and Cavinta said that evidence “certainly supports that.”
Ghirardo was taken to the Humboldt County jail, and will be booked on suspicion of animal cruelty, resisting arrest, threatening a police officer and disorderly conduct. The eviction process will continue as well, Cavinta said.
The puppy was taken by a neighbor to be returned to Ghirardo’s son, Cavinta said.
Copyright 2008 The Eureka Times-Standard