From the Office of the District Attorney:
Martinez, California – The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office filed charges on June 25th against two men who cut a utility line that severed 911 service for residents in Pinole, Hercules, and San Pablo.
Jesus Francisco Arias-Ayala, 31, of Hayward and 49-year-old Daniel Antonio Mena-Diaz of Richmond were arrested by Pinole Police on June 22nd. On that evening, around 7:15 pm, officers responded to reports of a 911 system outage. They traced the issue to a bridge near the Pinole-Hercules city line on San Pablo Avenue. Upon arrival, officers found Arias-Ayala and Mena-Diaz under the bridge.
After a brief chase, both suspects were apprehended, arrested, and booked into the Martinez Detention
Facility.
After reviewing the case, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office charged Arias-Ayala with a felony
for cutting utility line [PC 591], felony vandalism [PC 594(a)], a misdemeanor for resisting, obstructing,
or delaying a peace officer [PC 148(a)(1)], and a misdemeanor for possession of burglar’s tools [PC 466].
Mena-Diaz’s two felony charges are the same as Arias-Ayala, as is one misdemeanor charge of resisting,
obstructing, or delaying a peace officer.
Both men are scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 pm on June 27th in Martinez.
I am aware cable cutting is becoming the norm with advent of streaming content. But in this case, I am interested in the defendants’ motivation/reasoning for the alleged act in question.
You bet, Jeff, and we’d be reluctant to take a pair of wire-cutters to any cable, how’d they know which one did what?
Could there actions be construed as terrorism considering the 911 outage? Or are these two just low level low IQ knuckleheads?
I am surprised there are no particularly dramatic sounding charges filed reflecting the 911 system being specifically targeted (the filed charge is one you can earn simply by removing the battery from somebody’s phone), and I think the 911 aspect is a special circumstance warranting greater severity. It doesn’t seem quite at the level of terrorism, though, unless there’s more backstory that we haven’t heard yet. Terrorism is generally used to describe violence against civilians for political or ideological reasons
Stable geniuses to be sure.