Ceres police: Officers use bean-bag rounds on man with machete who broke into home
Ceres police officers and sheriff’s deputies subdued a man with a machete and knife who had refused to surrender with nonlethal rounds from bean-bag shotguns, according to authorities.
The incident took place Friday near Yolanda Street and Helen Perry Road, according to a Ceres Police Department media report issued Tuesday. That area is a residential neighborhood and near Sam Vaughn Elementary School.
Officers were looking for the man after responding around 4:30 p.m. to an intruder breaking into a nearby home.
A man with a machete had shattered a front window and entered a home in the 2000 block of Garland Court. The man kicked open locked doors and forced opened the locked door to the room where a mother and her child were hiding, according to the media report.
The intruder did not see the woman and child. The woman reported to police that she did not know the intruder, according to the media report.
The man was gone when officers arrived. But they had a description of his car, a white Nissan 350Z, according to the media report, and began searching for it. They found the car parked near Yolanda and Helen Perry.
Officer Jonathan Blount parked behind the Nissan and got out of his patrol car. The man got out of the Nissan. He was armed with a machete and a knife. The man “stood at his vehicle and would not drop his weapons,” according to the media report.
Other officers arrived, including Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputies. Officers tried to negotiate with the man, and Detective Julio Amador arrived and began negotiating with the man. The man was agitated and refused to drop the machete and knife.
“A stand-off of approximately an hour took place as officers tried to reason with (the man) and used de-escalation tactics, which ultimately did not work with him,” states the report.
The man advanced toward officers and officer Blount’s patrol car. The man “was close enough to the car that he began hitting the front bumper of the patrol car with the machete,” according to the report.
Because of the man’s actions and the danger he posed, an officer and a deputy both fired nonlethal rounds from bean-bag shotguns, according to officer Frederico Ortiz, a department spokesman, and Sgt. Luke Schwartz, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman.
The man was taken into custody. The man was identified as the intruder who broke into the Garland Court home, according to the media report.
“Right now, we are not sure what his motivation was,” Ceres Sgt. Keith Griebel said when asked why the man broke into the home. “He would not give us a statement. We just don’t know why.”
After being medically cleared, the man was booked at the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center on Saturday. The media report identifies the suspect as 25-year-old Ceres resident Michael Danh.
Danh is being held on $1 million bail and on suspicion of residential burglary, resisting an officer, child endangerment and vandalism. He was formally charged Tuesday morning and scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.
Attempts to reach Danh’s family for comment Tuesday were not successful.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 12:46 PM.
