Man arrested, accused of throwing bricks through Native American commission office windows
A man was arrested for vandalism Monday morning after allegedly throwing bricks or cinder blocks through windows at the Native American Heritage Commission office in West Sacramento, according to police and an employee who says she witnessed the incident.
West Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Eric Angle said units responded about 11:15 a.m. Monday to reports of a man throwing a cinder block through a window at the office.
Officers located the man soon after that in the area of Lake Washington and Jefferson boulevards and took him into custody, determining he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The department is not releasing the suspect’s name, Angle says. He was described as a man in his early 20s who was seen wearing an orange T-shirt and camouflage pants.
An employee at the Native American Heritage Commission, who spoke to The Sacramento Bee on the condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to talk to media, said the man came to the office, grabbed two retaining wall bricks and threw them through two different windows.
One of the offices was unoccupied and the other was a conference room with four people inside, said the employee, who saw and heard the incident from her desk.
“I heard it, it sounded like a bomb going off,” the woman said of the first window shattering.
She said her supervisor saw the man walking toward the conference room and warned those inside, yelling “he’s gonna throw a second one.”
No one was hurt as the meeting attendees cleared away from the window, and the man left shortly after that, she said.
“Everybody was obviously shaken by what has happened,” the employee said. “In the conference room, there were two people sitting in the direct line of that second block. It’s extremely good that my supervisor saw them coming and dashed for the door, or one of the guys would have been hit ... Looking at the aftermath of (the first brick), there was glass embedded in the walls. It was hugely impacted.”
The employee said she didn’t know the man’s motive, but noted that the commission was mentioned in a news story published Monday by The Bee concerning Native American tribal rights.
Assembly Bill 275 is currently being considered by the state Legislature. AB 275 is geared toward giving Native American tribes more power during repatriation discussions with the state. However, there are multiple legal definitions for a “tribe” in California, and the language of the bill indicates that those included must be federally recognized tribes. As The Bee reported, there are 109 federally recognized tribes in California and another 55 without the status, according to a 2016 report by the commission.
Angle said police “don’t believe that the crime was a hate crime, because the individual was under the influence.” He described the man as heavily intoxicated.
The suspect faces a charge of felony vandalism, Angle said.
The employee said windows at the office were boarded up as employees were sent home early Monday, then told to work from home through at least Tuesday as a safety precaution.
The office was closed Tuesday morning during normal business hours shown online, with no notice posted. Broken or boarded windows could not be seen from the building lobby.
A representative of the Native American Heritage Commission could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning. Phone numbers listed for the office were disconnected Tuesday morning.
The employee who spoke to The Bee said nothing like Monday’s incident has happened at the office before, to her knowledge. She anticipated some “trepidation” and mentioned the “insecurity of walking back to a place that’s been targeted.”
“We’ve had people that have been angry and come into the office, but nobody has done anything like that.”
