Drugs+Knife = Cops+Beanbags
Lompoc – Orlando Delamora, 35, was having a bad day on November 27th in “the city of arts & flowers” when a number of Lompoc citizens called 911 Emergency to report a disturbance in a North Sixth Street Neighborhood.
Orlando Delamora
According to Lompoc Police Department spokesman Sgt. Chuck Strange, deputies responding to the scene discovered Delamora “standing in the roadway, yelling and waving a large knife around.” As multiple patrol units arrived at the location to secure the area and prevent any contact between Delamora and the public, he was ordered multiple times to surrender the knife by dropping it to the ground.
Delamora, apparently hell-bent on self-destruction, refused police orders to disarm himself and continued his belligerent expletive-filled taunting of everyone within earshot. As reported by Strange, “the suspect appeared to be upset” as he slashed the knife through the air violently, daring the growing number of uniformed police at the scene to shoot him.
Perhaps reconsidering that thought in light of the high number of officer involved shootings throughout Santa Barbara County in recent months, Delamora—in perhaps the best decision he’s ever made in his life—dropped the knife to the ground.
But Delamora wasn’t done, continuing to verbally assault the police and maintaining his own proximity to the knife now on the ground. He refused to follow instructions to lie face-down on the ground with arms outstretched; rather, he took several steps toward the officers who immediately fired “bean bag” projectiles at him. The impact of those rounds promptly took Delamora to the ground, where officers rushed him and took him into custody.
Delamora was transported to Lompoc Valley Medical Center for treatment of wounds associated with the manner in which he was subdued, and was subsequently booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of being under the influence of a controlled substance, public intoxication, and resisting arrest.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
KCOY: Knife Wielding Man Arrested in Lompoc
Santa Maria Times: Lompoc Man Arrested After Wielding Knife
Lompoc Record: Lompoc Man Arrested After Wielding Knife
