SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KRON) — Police arrested a suspect accused of holding several people hostage, including a child, inside a Santa Rosa apartment overnight Thursday.
The Santa Rosa Police Department said officers responded to the 500 block of Apple Creek Lane around 1:22 a.m. They identified the suspect as 25-year-old Jarrett Cole, from El Dorado County.
According to police, Cole had held four people inside the apartment hostage for about two hours before officers even arrived. He was “actively threatening to burn the apartment down and making threats to kill everybody inside,” police said.
Witness statements showed that the suspect had also stabbed a television with a large knife, made threats to hurt the 5-year-old child, punched a dog in the head, and attempted to move a tenant towards a car outside at knife point to flee the area.
Police said one of the victims was able to call someone in Sacramento and leave the phone line open so they could hear everything during the situation. They heard Cole acting aggressively, making threats, and referring to himself as “God,” police said, adding that Cole would not allow the tenants to leave, move within the home, or communicate with their phones.
The Sacramento resident is the one who called 9-1-1 to the apartment, police said.
Police said officers surrounded the apartment upon arrival, and that’s when a woman opened the front door and threw a large knife onto the front lawn. Cole ran out of the upstairs apartment and starting engaging with officers while in the stairway, police said, during which the woman ran back into the apartment and locked the suspect out.
“Cole displayed signs of being under the influence of narcotics and did not have any weapons in his hands at the time. Officers maintained a short distance as they negotiated with Cole for approximately fifteen minutes to deescalate the situation and have him surrender peacefully,” police said.
According to police, the suspect started threatening to kill all the officers, prompting them to shoot “a less-lethal foam round to his upper front torso” to help approach and arrest him. He was given medical attention right after getting placed in handcuffs, police said.
Cole is facing several felony and misdemeanor charges, including kidnapping, animal cruelty, assault with a deadly weapon and obstruct/threatening an officer. He is also charged with having a small amount of methamphetamine, police said. He was booked into Sonoma County Jail.