Crowd Hostile As Healdsburg Man Resists Arrest: Santa Rosa Police

SANTA ROSA, CA — A 21-year-old Healdsburg man is accused of resisting arrest and becoming combative with Santa Rosa police officers who responded to a report earlier this week of domestic violence involving the young black man. Officers initially responded at 5:40 p.m. Wednesday to the incident in the parking lot of Safeway on 4th Street, and according to a Santa Rosa Police Department news release, spoke with a female who was sitting inside a car.

She was cooperative with police but the man inside the car, later identified as 21-year-old Jason Rougeau of Healdsburg, was not, police said.

Rougeau allegedly refused to get out of the car. He locked the doors and windows and was non-compliant with officers' repeated orders that he exit the vehicle in order for them to investigate the report of domestic violence, police said.

This went for about 12 minutes until Rougeau complied and got out of the car, police said. Rougeau was allegedly still "verbally defiant and became angry" by the officers' presence.

When officers tried to detain him to investigate the initial domestic violence report, he allegedly became physically violent with them.

When Rougeau allegedly became physically combative with three officers, the decision was made to deploy a police dog, "K-9 Riko."

The dog grabbed Rougeau by his left wrist, which allowed the officers to get Rougeau on the ground, police said.

As they were trying to placed him in handcuffs, officers became "surrounded by a hostile crowd," police said. People in the crowd "started yelling and screaming at the officers while chanting profanities," police said.

Once handcuffed, Rougeau was still "verbally defiant and combative with the officers as they tried to place him into a patrol vehicle," police said.

Rougeau's 20-year-old girlfriend told The Press-Democrat in an interview that when police arrived, Rougeau, who is black, immediately felt at risk of being stereotyped as "an angry African-American man" who needed handling.

Further, she told the newspaper, when he tried to reach in a pocket for the identification they had requested earlier, they rushed him and slammed him into the car.

One of the involved officers suffered a minor injury to his face, police said. Another of the involved officers did not need medical treatment.

Because the crowd was still hostile, officers left the scene and took Rougeau to the Santa Rosa Police Department's secure lot in order for his injuries to be assessed by medical personnel.

Sonoma Life Support responded and treated Rougeau for minor abrasions to his left wrist, police said.

After he was medically cleared, Rougeau was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of false imprisonment, domestic battery and resisting arrest.

Reached Friday, Santa Rosa police Sgt. Jeneane Kucker confirmed SRPD is looking into the actions taken by officers involved in Wednesday's incident.

"All use of force is investigated by our sergeants," Kucker told Patch.

Santa Rosa police officers are equipped with body-worn cameras, she confirmed, but footage from the cameras is not released "unless it meets criteria to do so."

Rougeau has pending court cases, Kucker told Patch, so "all footage is evidence at this point."

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