Suspect Threaten Officers ‘With Suicide By Cop’
CAPITOLA—Capitola Police responded to an armed robbery call at the Bank of the West on Capitola Road early Saturday morning. Santa Cruz County authorities arrested 61-year-old Richard Gene Blackman hours later after deputies located his car in the parking lot of a local Elementary School.
According to witnesses, 61-year-old Richard Gene Blackman of Los Gatos walked into the Bank of the West branch located on the corner of 38th Street and Capitola Road armed with a sawed-off shotgun. He demanded money from the bank employees, and after obtaining an undetermined amount of cash grabbed an employee and kidnapped her by taking her out to her vehicle.
He ordered the employee into the car, but she convinced him to let her go and for him to take her car instead. The Capitola Police Department issued a countywide alert for the car and the suspect. Blackman was described as a 5’11” white male with gray hair and blue eyes, weighing approximately 210 pounds.
Blackman didn’t go far, parking at Live Oak Elementary School.
A Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy spotted the stolen vehicle parked in the parking lot of the Live Oak Elementary School, which is less than a mile from the bank down Captiola Road. Blackman was still inside the vehicle with the shotgun.
He exited the vehicle and threatened the deputies with “suicide by cop” several times, by trying to cause them to shoot him, before he decided to try and take his own life. When he began to position the shotgun a Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy grabbed him, pulling the gun from him.
Officers from the California Highway Patrol and Capitola Police Department assisted at the scene of the arrest. Blackman, who listed his occupation as a plumber, was taken into custody and without further incident. The shotgun, the stolen money and the vehicle were all recovered.
