— So you’re looking for him, too?
— Yes, after I took statements at the restaurant, I began a search.
— Without any identifying characteristics.
— Well, I had a description of the young man. I knew he was Amerasian. And he left wearing an apron.
— You know no one says “Amerasian” anymore.
— Listen. I know these kids. I was in Vietnam for Christ’s sake. We said Amerasian for years. I can’t keep up with terminology.
— So you drive around looking for him.
— Yes.
— For how long?
— Forty-five minutes, an hour.
— Then what?
— Then we received a call from his mother.
— What did she say?
— That he had come home, ranting and raving, and that he’d left with a big knife.
— Did you go to the house?
— I didn’t, but another officer did. He took her statement and shared that information with the other officers.
— So now you’re looking for a young man in an apron, no shirt, and carrying a big knife.
— Yes. And he took her car, so now we knew he was driving a blue Honda Accord.
— But you didn’t find it.
— No. Then we got a call from a young woman’s house.
— You remember her name?
— No. It might have been Lily.
— Lily Dubuchet.
— Yes, I believe that was it.
— Who called?
— Her father called because the young man had been there. He’d broken the large window in the house. Apparently he heaved a cinder block through the picture window in the living room. When the family came to the window, he was breaking the windows on their cars.
— With what?
— A brick at first, then large stones he took from the driveway. Some kind of decorative stones that he was throwing through the windows and windshields of their cars.
— So the father called after he’d left?
— No, he was still there when the father called.
— Okay. I didn’t know that part.
— So two squad cars turned around and headed to the house.
— Were you one of those cars?
— I was.
— And when you got there?
— The young man was gone. I stayed to take a statement, and the other officer went in the direction the young man was last seen.
— He was driving his mom’s car.
— Yes. He left and sped down Willow, toward the highway.
— Did he threaten anyone at this young woman’s house?
— I don’t know.
— But you do know.
— You’re asking if he directly threatened anyone?
— Yes.
— He broke a plate-glass window.
— And was anyone harmed?
— Glass splintered throughout the room. Everyone was struck by glass fragments.
— And that’s it?
— As far as I recall.
— What about the knife?
— What about it?
— Did he threaten anyone with the knife at that house?
— Not that I recall.
— So he breaks some windows and then drives off.
— Yes.
— And you go in pursuit.
— Another officer went looking for his car.
— You stayed to get statements.
— I stayed for a few minutes.
— Until?
— Until I got word on the radio that he was back home.
— So he went from Lily’s house back home.
— Yes, apparently.
— So you went there.
— Yes. Three squad cars arrived at about the same time.
— And then what?
— We approached the front door and the mother came out.
— And did what?
— She said that her son had entered the house and had gone into the basement and locked himself inside.
— Okay. So there are how many cops at this point?
— Four.
— Four cops. And there’s one man in the basement.
— Yes.
— At this point are you aware of what size man he is?
— Yes. We knew at that point he was about five seven, 150 pounds.
— Not a large man.
— No.
— So you four officers, you do what?
— Well, first we went inside and knocked on the door to the basement.
— And?
— And he told us to go fuck ourselves.
— Did you try to open the door?
— It was locked and it wasn’t procedure to break it down.
— Why not?
— Well, he was armed, and we didn’t know at that point if he’d further armed himself. His mother said that he had been acting erratically and had pushed her against a wall. So we felt his behavior was unpredictable.
— So you called more cops?
— We called the Monterey Peninsula Regional Special Response Unit, yes.
— This is a SWAT team.
— Yes.
— Tell me about the decision to call them.
— Well, SWAT team officers are trained for hostage situations and—
— Were there hostages in the house?
— We weren’t sure.
— But did you have any evidence to suggest he’d taken a hostage?
— Not hard evidence, no.
— Did you ask the mother if her son had somehow snuck a hostage into the house?
— No, we did not.
— Did she tell you that he might have? Did she see some other person in the house?
— No.
— So I don’t know where you get the idea that he might have had a hostage.
— We have to prepare for any eventuality. I’m not saying that a hostage situation was foremost on our minds. But it was one of the possibilities. Hostages aren’t a prerequisite for the participation of the SWAT team.
— Okay, so at this point, you’re still standing by the basement door or what?
— No. At that point, we removed the mother from the home and fell back to the driveway.
— You fell back? Like this is some great battle. Jesus.
—
— You set up a perimeter or what?
— We did.
— But you’re still thinking that the threat is one man — a small man with a knife, sitting in his basement.
— At that point we didn’t know what he was armed with or what he was capable of. He’d done some very erratic things, including assaulting his mother.
— Was there evidence of an assault on his mother?
— He pushed her against a wall.
— Were there blood, cuts, bruises?
— No.
— So we have a man who pushed his mom against a wall.
— Yes. And he was armed with a knife.
— And did he threaten his mother with that knife?
— I can’t recall. But if he assaults someone, and he’s holding a knife, I have to assume that’s assault with a deadly weapon.
— But he didn’t assault her with the knife.
— He assaulted her and he was holding a knife.
— But did he threaten his mother with a knife?
— I can’t really recall.
— You can’t recall. Listen, you’ve been honest and forthright so far. You should stay that way. I know it’s been a while since I reminded you of this, but you’re chained to a post.
— I don’t think he threatened her, no.
— Thank you. So how long until the SWAT team arrives?
— Twenty, twenty-five minutes.
— How many on the SWAT team?
— Ten.
— All men?
— All men at that point.
— And so they arrive. Then what?
— They spread out throughout the property.
— What, like on the roof, backyard, everything?