"Female ran out of door and told deputies she was being held against her will"

(blood stains & bullet holes on deputy's uniform)

Sheriff William Honsal provided more details about the arrest of Hugo Parral-Aguirre on Sunday.

The initial call was from a neighbor about "a conflict between two non English speaking people."

Aguirre is citizen of Mexico. The deputy injured was female. She has been with department for three years. A Sgt and the deputy (who was injured) responded to the initial  call.


Aguirre did not legally own the firearm. He was tresspassing. The details of the dispute between Aguirre and the female's boyfriend are still being investigated but the female did not know Aguirre.

Sheriff Honsal said this is the second incident where a deputy was shot trying to help people. "Humboldt County has become very violent."

A 2008 battery arrest was not in the court system because it was not charged. Aguirre was turned over to immigration for illegal entry. In 2015, Aguirre deported by ICE.

Sheriff Honsal thanked all command staff on the scene. Lt. Bryan Quenell was SWAT commander that night, Lt. Kevin Miller was incident commander. Lt. Mike Fridley was the third senior staff member and command staff on scene.

Names of deputies will be released later this week.  Both deputies are on administrative leave, pending the investigation.

Aguirre has no hold. He can bail out. Sheriff Honsal said that while HCSO would cooperate with ICE , due to California law, he is not allowed to grant ICE's request for a hold to keep Aguirre in jail.

Detectives are working around the clock to get evidence and information to the DA. Aguirre has to be arraigned by Wednesday. After that, a preliminary hearing needs to be held. Assuming it is scheduled on a no time waived basis, that time period is 10 days.

If a Judge finds probable cause to support the charges, then a holding order can be issued and Aguirre will be turned over to federal authorities.


HCSO Press Release:

Just after midnight on Dec. 17, 2017 a call was placed to our dispatch center for a disturbance at 706 Coppini Ave, just outside of the city limits of Ferndale.

 The caller described a conflict between two non-English speaking male individuals. A sheriff’s deputy and a Sergeant were dispatched from the Eureka area at around 12:19 a.m. These sheriff’s deputies were in standard uniforms and marked patrol vehicles. They arrived on scene at 12:46 a.m.

Deputies arrived and parked a short distance from the two residences located at the far north end of Coppini Lane. As deputies approached the smaller barn structured residence on foot they identified themselves through the doorway. A female ran out the front door of the residence and told deputies that she was being held against her will by a male subject who was later identified as 30-year-old Hugo Parral-Aguirre. She advised deputies that Parral-Aguirre was in possession of a firearm.

Deputies saw Parral-Aguirre inside the residence. The deputies drew their weapons and ordered Parral-Aguirre to drop his gun. Parral-Aguirre then turned toward the deputies and the female, and shot one round from a 12 gauge shot gun at the deputies through the open doorway. The round struck one deputy in the left shoulder just above the bullet proof vest. The deputies returned fire as they pulled the female victim to a position of cover.

The deputies held the cover position while requesting county wide mutual aid. Officers from Ferndale, Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna, Rio Dell, HSU, CHP and Fish and Wildlife responded. Ferndale Fire and City Ambulance responded to render aid to the officer struck by the gunfire.

The Deputy was transported to St. Joseph Hospital for treatment. A call was placed to area residents regarding the police action through the Emergency Alert Notification system.

County officers held the cover position until the Sheriff’s SWAT team arrived on scene. At approximately 3:45 a.m. the SWAT team approached the residence. Parral-Aguirre was located laying on a bed in the bottom floor of the residence. He refused commands both in English and Spanish. The SWAT team then entered the residence and attempted to take Parral-Aguirre into custody. Parral-Aguirre was uncooperative and began to fight with the officers. The team subsequently took the Parral-Aguirre into custody without further assistance.

Emergency medical personnel were immediately dispatched and medical aid was rendered. Parral-Aguirre was transported to St. Joseph's for treatment. He sustained three, non-life threatening gunshot wounds. Parral-Aguirre was treated and then released to the custody of the Humboldt County Correctional Facility.

Through interviews and investigation, it was determined that Parral-Aguirre trespassed into the residence with a shotgun over a dispute with one of the residents. He shot at another resident and was holding the female subject hostage prior to deputies’ arrival.

Parral-Aguirre was not employed at the dairy and he is a citizen of Mexico.

This case is still under the investigation by the Humboldt County Critical Incident Response Team. Members of the Eureka Police Department, Arcata Police Department, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney and State Department of Justice Criminologist are actively investigating the case. At the conclusion of the investigations, charges will be requested with the District Attorney for attempted murder on a peace officer and false imprisonment.

Several lead pellets were removed from the injured deputy’s shoulder. She was released from the hospital later in the day on Dec. 18 and is currently recovering.

 The names of the sheriff’s deputies involved will be released at a future date. Both deputies have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

Parral-Aguirre has a criminal history. On Aug. 8, 2008 Parral-Aguirre was arrested for assault and battery. At that time, he was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a warrant for illegal entry into the country.

Parral-Aguirre was transferred to Federal Prison on Aug. 20, 2008. He voluntarily left the United States in 2008. In 2015 he was deported from the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Parral-Aguirre is in the country illegally.

(On December 19 around 6 p.m. HCSO provided this updated diagram of where the shooting occured)

Previous posts:
http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2017/12/no-priors-in-humboldt-for-hugo-parral.html?m=1
http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2017/12/hugo-parral-aguirre-charged-with.html?m=1

http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2017/12/officer-involved-shooting-last-night.html?m=1

http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2017/12/ferndale-ois-suspect-located-and-taken.html?m=1