Bay Area News Briefs

By Ananda Shorey

May 16, 2008

Heat wave expected to end by Sunday

At least one Bay Area city is expected to break heat records again today following record-setting temperatures Thursday, but the region should cool off by Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Santa Rosa is expected to reach 100 degrees today, breaking its record of 96 degrees. On Thursday, Santa Rosa was around 100 degrees as well, topping the record of 97, weather service meteorologist Steve Anderson said.

“There will be a few broken records today, but not as many as yesterday,” he said.

Residents along the coast can expect cooler weather Saturday, Anderson said. Inland temperatures will begin to drop Sunday when the heat wave ends.

Next week the Bay Area is expected be cooler but still warm.

“Temperatures will be above normal but not hot,” Anderson said.

Beginning Monday, San Francisco is expected to be around 70 degrees. Inland areas should reach 90 degrees and along the coast temperatures are expected to be in the upper 60s to around 70, according to Anderson.

The weather service issued a heat advisory for the Bay Area at 3 a.m. Thursday, which is expected to remain in effect until 8 p.m. today. Residents are advised to drink fluids and stay out of the sun. Children, pets and those sensitive to heat should not be left unattended in enclosed vehicles even for a short time as temperatures can quickly rise to life-threatening levels.

Freeman to be arraigned for shooting death near UC Campus

Nathaniel Freeman is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon on charges stemming from the shooting death of Oakland Parks and Recreation employee Maceo Smith one block south of the University of California, Berkeley campus Tuesday afternoon.

Berkeley police are recommending that Freeman, 19, be charged with murder for Smith’s death as well as assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly shooting a second man, who was Smith’s former brother-in-law, in the incident on the sidewalk in front of the Pacific Film Archive on Durant Avenue just east of Bowditch Street about 3:50 p.m. Tuesday.

Freeman turned himself in at the Berkeley police station at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Berkeley police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said Freeman was accompanied by a lawyer and declined to be interviewed about the shooting incident.

Kusmiss said the incident began after Freeman ran into the second victim, whose name isn’t being released, on Durant Avenue and the two men rekindled a dispute that started with a confrontation at a party a week earlier.

Kusmiss said the second victim eventually called Smith, a 33-year-old Berkeley man who’s the father of three children, to help him out in his argument with Freeman.

She said Freeman pulled out a gun at the southwest corner of Durant and Bowditch and shot both Smith and the second victim.

According to Kusmiss, after Smith was shot he staggered across both Durant and Bowditch and collapsed in a parking lot at 2542 Durant. The lot is next to the well-known Top Dog hot dog stand at 2534 Durant. Smith was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kusmiss said the second victim got into his silver Cadillac, abandoned Smith and drove himself to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he was treated for non-life threatening gunshot wounds and released.

She said Freeman fled the scene on foot.

No weapons have been recovered, Kusmiss said.

Psychiatric exam ordered for murder defendant

Criminal proceedings were suspended in Sonoma County Superior Court this morning against a Santa Rosa man accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend last weekend.

Honorio Pantaleon, 30, will undergo an exam by psychiatrist Donald Apostle. The defense requested the examination and the report is due June 5. Pantaleon again delayed entering pleas this morning to six felony counts.

Judge Elliot Daum granted a criminal protective order this morning prohibiting Pantaleon from having contact with five family members.

He is charged with killing 25-year-old Patricia Barrales, the mother of their two children. Her body was found Sunday night in a toy box in a closet in the couple’s apartment on Montecito Avenue in Santa Rosa. She had been stabbed multiple times in the upper body and head, Santa Rosa police said.

Pantaleon is charged with murder, aggravated mayhem, domestic violence battery on a spouse, two counts of child endangerment and mayhem. There are also enhancements alleging the use of a knife and inflicting great bodily injury. He faces life in prison without parole.

Pantaleon also allegedly tried to shoot Barrales’ mother Isabel with a rifle at her Ukiah home Monday morning but instead struck her with the rifle when it didn’t fire. He was arrested by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office in Ukiah late Monday night.

Police went to Barrales’ Rincon Valley apartment at 6:47 p.m. Sunday after her brother asked them to check on her welfare because she had been a victim of previous domestic violence. Two officers checked the apartment and found no one inside and no signs of foul play, Sgt. Lisa Banayat said.

At 9:27 p.m. Sunday, the apartment manager called police after he received a call from Barrales’ family members asking him to check the closets in the apartment, Banayat said. The family members said Barrales’ 4-year-old son stated his mother was locked in the closed, Banayat said.

The apartment manager called police who then discovered Barrales’ body. Police said it’s still not known when exactly Barrales was killed.

Pantaleon showed up at his mother’s Lake County residence with his two sons just before midnight Saturday, relatives said. He is being held under no bail in the Sonoma County Jail.

Two brothers charged with arson for school fire

Two brothers, ages 12 and 16, will appear in Alameda County Juvenile Court today on felony arson charges for allegedly starting a fire last week that heavily damaged an art classroom at Sobrante Park Elementary School in Oakland.

The brothers also are charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor vandalism in connection with the blaze, which happened at a portable classroom used for art class and storing art supplies at the school, which is located at 470 El Paseo Drive.

Deputy District Attorney Scott Swisher said the misdemeanor vandalism charges could be upgraded to felony charges if authorities can prove the fire caused more than $400 in damage.

Fire officials have estimated that the blaze caused more than $40,000 in damage.

According to Oakland police, the two brothers live near the school and used to go to school there.

The older brother now attends Fremont High School in Oakland and the younger brother attends Madison Middle School.

The burglary charges stem from allegations that the brothers stole some colored marker pens from the school.

Swisher said the brothers are being held at Alameda County Juvenile Hall in San Leandro.

CHP arrests gold minivan driver who killed pedestrian

The California Highway Patrol has arrested a 38-year-old Antioch woman for the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian on U.S. Highway 101 Saturday.

CHP Officer Mary Ziegenbein said Renita Michelle Surles was arrested at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at her home for vehicular manslaughter, hit-and-run, child endangerment and driving under the influence. She is being held in the Marin County Jail.

Jorge Luis Rodas Lopez, 42, a Novato landscaper, was killed Saturday evening when he was struck by a gold Honda Odyssey on the side of northbound Highway 101.

The CHP said Lopez had just finished putting gasoline in his 1983 Nissan pickup truck when he was struck around 6:40 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

CHP officers found Lopez just south of Ignacio Boulevard on the right shoulder of the highway 70 feet from his vehicle.

Ziegenbein said the CHP found the Odyssey’s front bumper at the crash scene and used part of a tag inside the bumper to trace it to Mike Auto Body shop in Antioch. A body shop employee traced the tag and bumper to Surles, Ziegenbein said.

Driver dies from chest wound following traffic collision

A man believed to be between 25 and 35 years old died at a San Francisco hospital this morning from a gunshot or stab wound after crashing his vehicle in the city’s South of Market neighborhood, according to the Police Department.

Officers responded at about 5:15 a.m. to Mission and Eighth streets, where the man had crashed into a mailbox, police said.

Police found the man alone inside the vehicle suffering the chest wound, according to police.

The man was transported to San Francisco General Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. The incident is being investigated as a homicide.

Teens who escaped from probation camp still at large

Two 17-year-old boys who escaped Thursday afternoon from a medium-security probation camp in the hills of San Mateo County have not been found, a probation officer said this morning.

The escapees left Camp Glenwood, a camp for delinquent teenage boys, around 2:15 p.m., San Mateo County Assistant Chief Probation Officer Stewart Peterson said. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office originally reported that the San Francisco Probation Department ran the facility located on state Highway 84, about 2 miles from the town of La Honda.

One teen was in the facility for robbery while the other was there for making terrorist threats, Lt. Marc Alcantara said. They are described only as being black, having short hair, wearing shirts with the camp logo on them, one yellow and one green, as well as blue jeans.

Peterson said teens do run away once in a while because the camp is not fenced in, but it is “not real common.”

Teens sent to the camp are not necessarily horrendous offenders, but they are the kids who have the hardest time making changes within their community and peer groups, Peterson said. When they come to Glenwood it gives kids a chance to change their behaviors and think about things they have done, without dealing with peer pressure or being surrounded by bad influences, he added.

The population of the camp ranges between 54 and 60 teenage boys aged 16 to 17, Peterson said. They usually stay at the camp for six months, but participate in follow-up programs for a year after their release.

The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office is continuing to search for the two teens. The San Mateo County emergency alert system notified residents and businesses in the area and is asking anyone who sees the boys to call 911.

Bicyclist involved in fatal crash on bike to work day identified

A 66-year-old man who died while biking to work on the Bay Area’s Bike to Work Day on Thursday was identified today by the San Mateo County coroner’s office.

Joseph Walter Castillo, of San Mateo, apparently crashed his bicycle into a wood fence sometime between 5 and 6 a.m. in the northwest corner of Coyote Point Park near the Peninsula Humane Society, San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Director Dave Holland said.

The man, who was wearing a helmet when he crashed, was pronounced dead at the scene.

“What caused him to ride into the fence we don’t know,” Holland said Thursday, but added authorities speculated the man might have had a medical condition.

It was unknown whether an autopsy would be conducted on Castillo, according to the coroner’s office.

The crash is Coyote Point Park’s first reported fatal bicycle collision, according to Holland.

Thousands of Bay Area residents rode their bicycles to work Thursday in celebration of the region’s Bike to Work Day.

Study cites shortage of rural fire department volunteers

A consulting company is studying the challenges, including the shortage of available manpower, that are facing Sonoma County’s volunteer fire departments.

Representatives from Emergency Services Consulting Inc., of Wilsonville, Ore., briefed the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on the scope of the study during a workshop Thursday morning.

A draft of the study of the 15 volunteer fire companies in County Service Area #40 will be submitted to the fire companies first and then they will be reviewed by the Board of Supervisors in the early fall.

The manpower shortage faced by the county’s volunteer fire departments in sparsely populated rural areas, is shared by other volunteer companies nationwide, said Ronnie J. Coleman, a project manager with the consulting company.

“There has been a 10-15 percent reduction of volunteers in departments nationwide in the past 10 years,” Coleman said.

Emergency Services Consulting is mapping where the volunteers in the county live and work and consequently, their probable response times to fires in their districts. There naturally is a greater response to a fire on a weekend afternoon than on a weekday afternoon, the consulting company officials noted.

Coleman said there has been a demographic shift nationwide of people moving from city to rural areas and expecting the same quick response from local fire companies.

Those former city residents are not likely to join volunteer fire companies and there are fewer prospective volunteers in their 20s and 30s.

The study takes note of the demands of work, family and fire department duties the volunteers face and the ability to retain those who do volunteer.

A transient and aging population increases demands for fire department services that include medical emergency calls, said Jack W. Snook, president of Emergency Services Consulting Inc. Automatic aid is an essential element of availability, he said.

The possibility of merging local departments into a larger regional departments is an option and local resistance to such mergers is less now than it was five years ago, Coleman said.

Aside from manpower shortages, the volunteer fire departments have aging apparatus and fire stations, maintenance challenges and often lack community involvement.

Most of the 15 volunteer stations under study cover less than 22 square miles and all but three companies have populations less than 1,000 people in their service area.