On 12/04/15 at about 7:00 AM, sheriff’s deputies responded to a home invasion robbery in the 4500 block of Meadow Circle in Rescue. The female caller said one person had been stabbed.

At the house, deputies located three occupants, including one male who was bleeding. The three occupants were escorted to a safe place where medics could evaluate them.

Checking the rest of the house for additional victims and/or suspects, deputies noticed the house appeared to have been ransacked. In addition, marijuana was seen in almost every room. It looked like the residence and property was being used as a commercial marijuana facility to include growing, drying, processing, and packaging. No one else was located.

According to a victims, they were asleep when someone kicked-open the door to the backyard. Several people came in the house, two or possibly more, one armed with a shotgun. The suspects ordered them to turn face down and be quiet. As the suspects searched the house, they demanded the male resident tell them where the money was.

During the robbery, one of the suspects threatened the male resident with a knife. The male received several cuts, some that required stitches. He was later treated at the hospital and released. The suspects tied all three victims and left taking money and marijuana. By the time the sheriff’s office was called, the suspects had been gone for some time.

The suspects were described as possibly Hispanic, in their late 20’s to mid-30’s. One suspect was described as wearing a hoodie and some sort of a mask. They were heard talking to each other in English and Spanish.

Detectives and CSI responded and processed the scene. Anyone having information on this crime is encouraged to call the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau at (530) 642-4703.

Lt. Tom Murdoch

An unidentified male suspect forcibly entered the Coloma Club the night of December 1, 2015 during the early morning hours and accessed both a safe and free standing ATM machine. He escaped with several thousand dollars in cash. He was captured on surveillance wearing a dark hooded jacket and dark square-framed prescription eye glasses.

Anyone who recognizes this suspect is urged to call the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office at (530) 621-5655 or Detective J. Robertson at (530) 642-4722. Anonymous crime tips can also be submitted via the El Dorado County Sheriff’s website at www.edso.org.

On December 2, 2015, at about 9:10 AM, El Dorado County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the area of Minniconjou Dr. and Susquehana Dr. in South Lake Tahoe for an aggressive 700-800 pound bear. Deputies located and identified the bear as one that had been disrupting the neighborhood for several weeks by breaking into multiple residences. Deputies attempted to get the bear to move away from the residential area, using loud noises and less lethal bean bag rounds. In most cases these types of tactics are very successful and result in the bear leaving the area.

However on this occasion the bear was very persistent and would not leave the area and moved aggressively towards the deputies’ location. The aggressive actions of the bear towards deputies endangered their personal safety as well as the resident’s safety. Based on the present circumstances deputies unfortunately had no choice, but to use lethal force on the bear when other non-lethal measures failed to have an effect.

Deputies were in contact with the Fish and Wildlife agency and updated them on the incident.

The Sheriff’s Office attempts to take every measure possible to resolve bear incident cases at the lowest level, however when personal safety is in jeopardy, deputies must protect life and maintain safety.

The Sheriff’s Office has trained deputies for the past 15 years on how to effectively handle bear related calls. Deputies are and given tools of a less lethal nature to divert bears from the inside of homes and from neighborhoods back to the forest lands.

In the past year, the Sheriff’s Office responded to 177 bear related calls, of which 23 were located in the same neighborhood as yesterday’s incident. Of the 177 bear related calls, all were resolved with the use of non-lethal measures.

Lt. Bryan Golmitz