Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Oct. 7 at about 6:30 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a disturbance in the 1100 block of Lloyd St. in the Pine Hill area. The caller reported a male — later identified as Jeffrey Buckalew, age 62 of Fortuna — yelling and banging on their door before leaving the property.

While searching the area for Buckalew, deputies received another report that someone was yelling in a nearby private pasture, about half a mile from the initial incident location. Suspecting that this was the same person, deputies responded to the caller’s residence in the 500 block of Sea Ave. in the Pine Hill area.

Buckalew was found hiding in the pasture’s brush and responded to deputy callouts with threats to use a firearm on them. For safety purposes, deputies drew their department-issued handguns and less-than-lethal weapons, as well as brought a specialized K-9 on scene. Deputies continued to tell Buckalew to cooperate and negotiated with him for over an hour, but he refused to comply with commands and continued threatening the use of his firearm. 

After about 90 minutes of negotiating, Buckalew crawled out of the brush with his hands up and no firearm was seen. Shortly after, he fled back into the brush; however, deputies were able to safely apprehend him. Buckalew was taken into custody for disorderly conduct while under the influence (PC 647(f)) and obstructing/resisting an executive officer (PC 69).

This case is still under investigation.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.