Police tase man after he tries to grab officer’s gun
By Christopher Quirk Staff Writer
Gilroy – A 33-year-old man carrying methamphetamine was tased after masturbating in public, tailing two adult women and trying to grab a police officer’s gun on the levee near Gilroy High School, police said.
Keith Richard Rossi of the 200 block of Churchill Place was sitting on a levee bench east of where it crosses Miller Avenue when two women walked past him Friday at about 10am, police said. They noticed his hands moving in his lap and then saw him get up and follow them. The two women called police, who dispatched an officer to the scene.
When the officer showed up, Rossi “immediately became confrontational and combative with the officer” and “assumed a fighting stance,” police public information officer Sgt. Jim Gillio said.
When the officer went to check Rossi for weapons, the 5-foot 6-inch, 150-pound male grabbed the officer’s gun and tried to pull it out of the holster.
A lock mechanism prevented Rossi from getting the gun and the officer then broke Rossi’s grip on the gun.
The officers – four had shown up by the end of the incident – subdued Rossi with a TASER – which delivers up to 50,000 volts of electricity.
The Hispanic male was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and trying to take a police officer’s firearm, a felony, and a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance.
Rossi was also charged with lewd acts in public.
“The officers did an outstanding job showing restraint when dealing with this combative subject who was trying to remove their firearm,” Gillio said. “This is something we’re proud of.”
Police drew a blood sample and sent it to the Santa Clara County crime lab to compare against DNA taken from a rape kit performed on the victim of a May 24 levee rape that occurred on the levee behind Gilroy High School.
However, police do not suspect Rossi is linked to the rash of spring sexual assaults.
“There is not believed to be any connection to the previous rapes because the suspect description is so different,” Gillio said.
Even without connections between the sexual assaults, Gilroy High School will use the incident to revisit personal safety lessons for students, principal James Maxwell said.
As the school did after the May rape, it will host sexual assault awareness classes, possibly with the assistance of Community Solutions – a Morgan Hill-based nonprofit that provides services to rape and domestic violence victims.
The school might send out an all-call, a recorded message to high school parents, informing them of the incident, Maxwell said.
The reason that they have not already taken steps is because the police did not inform them of the sexual assualt.
However, the incident was far enough away that police had reason not to think of it as a matter concerning schools, which were not in session Friday because of teacher professional development.
Geographic distance notwithstanding, the sexual assault can be made into a discussion platform, Maxwell said.
The incident “is a bit removed,” he said. “But it give us an opportunity.”
Christopher Quirk covers education and public safety for the Dispatch. Contact him at 847-7240 or [email protected].
