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COBB – A man being sought following a confrontation with Lake County Sheriff's deputies earlier this week was arrested without incident by members of the sheriff's SWAT team late Wednesday.
Victor Bronco Rodin, 43, of Cobb was arrested at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at his mother's Clearlake Oaks home, Chief Deputy James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported Thursday.
Rodin had been sought by sheriff's deputies since Tuesday night, when he had confronted two deputies at his ex-girlfriend's house on Brookside Drive, as Lake County News has reported.
Believing he was armed and about to shoot at them, one of the deputies shot once at Rodin, who was not hurt, Bauman said.
Rodin fled on foot into the woods, where deputies searched for him until 1 a.m. Wednesday. Later that day, a sheriff's SWAT team resumed the search for Rodin, who Bauman said was a convicted felon with a history of unstable behavior.
From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday SWAT members went door to door in the immediate vicinity of the
Brookside Drive home to check unoccupied homes and make sure residents knew Rodin was at large, Bauman reported.
Sheriff’s personnel continued to follow up on leads regarding Rodin’s whereabouts in the Cobb Mountain area until about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Bauman said.
At about that time the sheriff’s office received a call from Rodin's mother, who reported that he was at her home in Clearlake Oaks and was prepared to turn himself in to authorities, according to Bauman.
Several members of the SWAT team responded to the Clearlake Oaks home, Bauman reported, while the California Highway Patrol set up precautionary road blocks in the area along State Highway 20 to avert another potential escape.
Bauman said sheriff's deputies took Rodin into custody without resistance at about 10:30 p.m.
At that point they also confirmed that Rodin had not been injured as a result of the gunfire the
previous night on Brookside Drive, Bauman said.
Rodin was booked into the Lake County Jail early Thursday morning on misdemeanor charges of a felon in possession of tear gas, resisting/obstructing a peace officer and two unrelated arrest warrant, according to jail records. Bail was set at $7,000.
Bauman said the sheriff's office used its telephonic warning system to send out a public safety alert at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday to inform Cobb residents that Rodin had been apprehended. The previous day, the sheriff's office used the system to notify 600 people in the community of the situation.
This is the first time the system – purchased a few years ago – been used for a community safety alert, said Bauman. Previously, it had been used for staff and search and rescue callouts. “It's a pretty handy item to have.”
Bauman said he was not sure if the deputy who fired the shot at Rodin was placed on leave, although he had been off on Wednesday night. District Attorney's investigators had been called to the scene at Cobb late Tuesday to conduct an investigation into the officer-involved shooting.
Information on Rodin's past felony conviction was not available, however, Bauman said sheriff's deputies have had previous contact with him.
“His local record shows several warrants in the past several years,” said Bauman.
Rodin also was arrested in 2004 for spousal battery, according to Bauman, who said he did not know if the woman involved was the ex-girlfriend in whose home Rodin was found Tuesday night.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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As Lake County News has reported, deputies were searching for a man late Tuesday night after he barricaded himself in a house and then escaped into the woods.
Lake County Sheriff's Chief Deputy James Bauman reported Wednesday that the department was continuing its efforts to find 43-year-old Victor Rodin.
Rodin is described as a while male adult, 6 feet, 4 inches tall, approximately 200 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Bauman said Rodin was last seen wearing a light-colored, dirty T-shirt and denim pants.
The sheriff's office issued a recorded telephonic warning to more than 600 Cobb residents at about 10 a.m. Wednesday, informing them of the incident, and the fact that Rodin was at large and possibly still in the area, Bauman reported.
The confrontation that led to the hunt for Rodin arose at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when deputies arrived at a Brookside Drive residence to conduct a welfare check on Rodin, who has a history of unstable behavior, Bauman reported.
Rodin's mother had called the sheriff’s office to report her son missing and at risk after learning of a dispute between him with his former girlfriend on Sunday, according to Bauman.
Two sheriff’s deputies located Rodin's former girlfriend, who believed Rodin was trespassing at her home on Brookside Drive, Bauman said.
Upon gaining her permission to check the residence, the two deputies entered the home to check on Rodin, Bauman reported.
The deputies announced their presence, and began searching the home, Bauman said, finding Rodin in a bedroom.
In very limited light, Bauman said deputies could see that Rodin was holding a canister of pepper spray in one hand and concealing the other hand.
After repeatedly refusing to show his other hand, Bauman said Rodin suddenly brandished what appeared to be a weapon.
One of the deputies fired one shot from his sidearm in defense, Bauman said.
The deputies then backed out of immediate danger and took cover, and Rodin closed the door to the room, barricading himself inside, according to Bauman.
As the deputies waited for additional cover units to arrive, one of them went outside of the home to check for escape routes, and saw Rodin run into the nearby woods, Bauman said.
Five additional sheriff’s deputies responded to the area and with the assistance of several units from the California Highway Patrol and a K-9 unit from the Lakeport Police Department, an extensive search for Rodin was conducted until about 1 a.m. Wednesday, according to Bauman.
Because an officer-involved shooting had taken place, Bauman said the Lake County District Attorney’s Office was called in to conduct an independent. Meanwhile, sheriff’s detectives continued to process the scene throughout the night.
On Wednesday morning an extensive search for Rodin was resumed by members of the sheriff’s
SWAT team, Bauman said.
Bauman said it's believed that Rodin was not wounded by the deputy's single gunshot; however, he may be injured by other means.
Rodin is a convicted felon with a history of unstable behavior, has an unrelated outstanding warrant for his arrest, and should be considered armed and dangerous, Bauman reported.
Anyone who sees Rodin or knows of his whereabouts should immediately call the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, 262-4200 or 911, and should by no means, attempt to contact or apprehend him.
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The California Highway Patrol reported Wednesday the crash victim was 76-year-old Colleen Infeld of Clearlake.
Infeld died Friday following a head-on collision along Highway 29 north of Hofacker Lane between Lower Lake and Hidden Valley, as Lake County News reported.
CHP reported Infeld was driving southbound on Highway 29 shortly before 10 a.m. when her 2004 Ford Focus crossed into the northbound lane.
She collided head-on with a 2005 Chevy Impala driven by an 85-year-old Clearlake Oaks man, who CHP did not identify. The man was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital by air ambulance.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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LAKE COUNTY – The skies over Lake County held special wonder for stargazers Wednesday, with a total lunar eclipse.
Lake County News correspondent Harold LaBonte captured the eclipse with his digital camera from the lakeshore in Lakeport.
The total eclipse lasted from 8:01 p.m. to 8:51 p.m., NASA reported. A partial eclipse of the moon lasted longer, from 5:43 p.m. to 9:09 p.m.
NASA reports that the next total lunar eclipse that will be visible in North American will take place on Dec. 21, 2010.
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Radio reports indicated that shots were fired in the area of Brookside Drive – between Forest Lake Drive and Dogwood Way – at about 9 p.m.
An individual was reported to have been injured and medical personnel were summoned to the scene.
Deputies who arrived at the scene reported over the radio that they had fired at the suspect, who barricaded himself into a home in the 10300 block of Brookside Drive.
The suspect then reportedly slipped out a back window at the residence and escaped into the heavily forested area.
There were more than half a dozen sheriff's units on scene, according to radio reports, along with a medical unit and at least one California Highway Patrol vehicle.
Sheriff's personnel set up a perimeter that extended several streets over to Maple Shadows Drive.
At least two K-9s also were requested to the “Brookside Incident” at 9:12 p.m., and were deployed to search for the suspect at 9:51 p.m.
CHP officers at one point had found an individual matching the suspect's description near the Loch Lomond bar.
However, at about 10:50 p.m. deputies reported that a shot was fired in their direction, which may have come from the area of a nearby residence.
Just after 11 p.m. two sheriff's detectives were called to the scene.
There was no further information available early Wednesday morning.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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KELSEYVILLE – A school board agenda featuring a possible change of the high school mascot from the “Knights” back to the “Indians” drew a crowd of 150 here Tuesday night.
Public comments ranged from “Let’s move on,” which arose repeatedly, to County Supervisor Rob Brown waving a check for $1,000 in the air to support the cost of changing back.
The open-ended “Approve/Disapprove/Discuss” item followed a controversial but unanimous decision almost two years ago to change from the Indian mascot, at the request of a local Native American tribal member. The decision to change the name was unanimously upheld two months later then was hotly debated during the most recent school board election.
Speaking to neither side of the issue Tuesday night was high school English and world history teacher Meredith Lahmann. “Is the cartoon we use while playing games really a top priority compared to our children’s academic needs?” she asked.
“Where were the outcries from the community when test scores plummeted?” she continued.
“I was happy as a Kelseyville Indian but I am also happy as a Kelseyville Knight because a mascot is a cartoon used to represent a team when it is playing a game,” she said. “Therefore, I do not invest much energy in it.”
Marr Olsen, wearing an Indian-logo black sweatshirt that read “ALWAYS AN INDIAN” on the back, objected. “It’s not a cartoon character,” he said.
“It’s like the eagle on top of the flag,” he explained, “that’s not a cartoon.”
Responding to remarks from Kelseyville resident and attorney Peter Windrem, who stated clearly that he is descended from “the earliest settlers,” Olsen said, “If anyone wants to be that sensitive about it, then deed your land back to ‘em.”
Windrem had reviewed the origin of the term “Indian,” noting that it was applied to Native Americans by early travelers from Europe who thought they had reached India. He said the name “Indian” is owned by a group of people who have now requested it not be used.
“The graceful thing to do,” Windrem advised, would be to thank the group for its permitted use and now that permission is withdrawn we stop using the name … “and we go on with our lives.”
Members of Mendocino County’s Native American community spoke as well, including a woman who identified herself as “Tony,” who said the issue is about respect.
“If my people went out and massacred your people and then called ourselves 'The Oakies' or something,” she said, that would not be respectful.
But Leah Palmer disagreed. Palmer, who identified herself as a member of Kelseyville’s class of ’93, addressed the crowd while holding an infant. She said she is teaching her daughter cheers that use the term “Indian” with respect.
“If anyone thinks they were disrespected, it was because they didn’t understand,” she said.
Palmer said that abandoning the “Indian” mascot name is like “uprooting a family.”
Several speakers commented that the discussion was creating “strife” and “derision” in the community.
“Our billboards on the highway call Kelseyville a Friendly Country Town,” Lahmann said. “Are we?”
The board decided to continue the mascot discussion until next month.
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