New Martinez Police Chief

These new additions have brought Commander Gary Peterson of the Martinez Police Department as the new Chief beginning next month. Peterson has served since 1989 and has performed a number of duties including detective, patrol officer and he was a S.W.A.T. team member. Peterson held the position of sergeant and was promoted to commander and has served under that title since 2008.

Peterson will be filling in for retiring Chief of Police, Tom Simonetti.

New Concord Chief from San Diego PD

The Concord Police Department named their new Chief of Police as Guy Swanger, formally of the San Diego Police Department. Swanger will be taking over the position as the former Chief, David Livingston has been named the new Sheriff for Contra Costa County.

Swanger served under the San Diego Police Department for approximately 19 years and is a former graduate of the FBI National Academy.

Swanger also holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration and has co-written a book titled, “Managing Innovation in Policing: The Untapped Potential of the Middle Manager.”

Welcome these Chief of Police to their respected departments!

He was found shot to death by a .357 Magnum at his home on May 13th, sometime between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m. After the shooting, Christina Fletcher was found running naked in a park in Oakland just hours after the shooting.

Gary Peterson, Martinez Police Cmdr. stated that Ms. Fletcher was arrested as she was leaving a psychiatric hospital on Thursday. She was transported to John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro before she was identified by Oakland police as the suspect in the death of her father.

Ms. Fletcher, a college graduate has a brother who was living at home with her and the father. He was unaware of the shooting until finding him dead in bed after arriving home from work.

Ms. Fletcher is currently being held on a $1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on charges of murder.

After being alerted by neighbors, police took chase after two others fleeing out the back. More police were called in to cover the house and arrested another, who didn’t go lightly, threatening the officers and fighting.

The police didn’t stop there, and for good reason. Two more were arrested for suspicion of public intoxication. Police kept the “arrest party” going by returning later and arrested another. All the while, some guy thought he would jump out the second story window in an attempt to flee the police, but since they were 7 for 7 already, what was he thinking? He fractured his ankle and got arrested and taken to jail. Police, while still on the property, decided to speak with another woman, who should have just stayed quiet, because the police were batting a .1000. Yep, you guessed it, she was also arrested. I guess she didn’t want to miss out on the jail party. Martinez Detention Center must have been rockin’ that night. (Nope, we didn’t bail any of them out!)

Crazy thing about this isn’t the fact that 9 people were arrested, but the person the police were looking for in the first place, was never found.