Heather Athlyn Petersen of Eureka passed away on March 17, 2023 due to complications
from breast cancer. She was 36 years old.
Heather was born on November 15, 1986 in Eureka, the younger of two daughters born to Michael and
Melinda Petersen. She was named after her great grandmother, Athlyn. She attended Ridgewood
Elementary School, Cutten Elementary School, Winship Junior High School, and Eureka High School,
graduating in 2004. She and her older sister, Nicole, were close and grew up exploring the redwood forest
near their home in Cutten and camped often with family. Heather loved basketball and played many years
in the Hoopsters recreational basketball league. Every Friday when she was a child, Heather went to her
grandparents’ home in Eureka, and when her grandparents moved to Willow Creek in 1995, she loved to
spend school breaks with them, playing in the backyard and walking to the nearby Trinity River. She
enjoyed playing video games and cooking. She created a chicken, broccoli, and rice dish that continues to
be a family favorite and loved making pineapple upside down cake. She had a wonderful sense of humor
and loved watching stand-up comedy specials. She was a beautiful girl and loved doing her and her friends’
hair and make-up. Every summer when Heather was a teenager, she would fly to Las Vegas to stay with her
Aunt Kari and her cousins, David, Kara, and Danielle. She enjoyed traveling and went on cruises to
Mexico, Canada, Catalina Island, and Disneyland with family. She had many close friends, but her best
friend throughout her life was her next door neighbor, Sasha.
In 2014, Heather graduated with her cosmetology license from Frederick and Charles Beauty School in
Eureka. Soon after, she got a job as a Hair Stylist at Regis Salon at the Bayshore Mall. She adored her dog,
a Chiweenie named JuJu Bee, and never went anywhere without her. She loved teasing and spending time
with her nephew and niece, Josiah and Daphne.
In 2019, Heather gave birth to her pride and joy, her beautiful little girl, Farrah Elaine. She named her after
her mom, Melinda Elaine, who she was incredibly close. She doted on Farrah, playing games with her,
doing her hair, and buying her the cutest clothes to wear. She would set up a kiddie pool in the backyard on
warm days so Farrah could cool off and swim. They would bake cupcakes together, she taught Farrah how
to ride her bike, and she would always play along when Farrah would cook imaginary food for her in her
play kitchen. They loved dancing together to Baby Shark, The Floor is Lava, and the Freeze Dance Song.
In December 2021, Heather was diagnosed with stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer (triple negative). She
endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments over the next year, but tried to continue
living as normally as she could, continuing to go out and visit with her family and closest friends. She
didn’t tell many people about her diagnosis as she never wanted anyone to worry. She passed away
peacefully at home with her parents by her side.
Heather was always the life of the party and made many friends throughout the years. She was a very
sweet, affectionate child who grew into an incredibly loving, kind, and hilarious adult. She would always
go out of her way to help anyone who needed it, and always made people laugh. She was full of life and
always made whoever she was with feel important and cared for. She touched so many lives, and she will
be missed more than she ever could have known.
Heather is preceded in death by her grandparents, Dennis and Lorna Petersen, her grandfather, Charles
Nichols, her step-grandfather, Jack Armstrong, her great grandmother, Athlyn Lawson, her uncle, Martin
Nichols, and her best friend, Sasha Peters.
She is survived by her parents, Michael and Melinda Petersen, her daughter, Farrah Elaine Petersen-Log,
and her sister, Nicole Petersen-Log (Joseph). She is also survived by her grandmother, Kathlyn Nichols, her
nephew and niece, Josiah and Daphne Log, and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.
The family wishes to thank the exceptional staff at Hospice of Humboldt for their kindness and continuous
care over the past few months. Per Heather’s request, no celebration of life will be held, but please feel free
to share your memories of her at www.lostcoastoutpost.com.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Heather Petersen’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
Larry Benjamin Fleek October
9, 1958 - February 14, 2023
After an emergency
trip to the hospital where it was discovered that he had an
inoperable mass on his brain and was in rapidly declining health,
Larry went on to Heaven to be reunited with many loved ones.
A lifelong native of
Eureka, Larry grew up enjoying trips to the beach and to local rivers
and lakes with family and friends. A highlight in the summertime was
camping at Willow Creek, or Trinity and Ruth Lakes where skiing,
hiking, and family and friend time around the campfire were daily
musts. On hikes, he will be remembered for never being able to pass a
rotted log without giving it a good kick for firewood gathering, then
running to get away from angry bees! Yahtzee, Monopoly and card games
at the camp table often went on late into the night after a round or
two (or three!) of s’mores.
Except for several
years during his teens living in Georgia with his family, Larry
attended all local schools and graduated from Eureka High School in
1977. Many of his friends date back to his elementary days at Cutten
School, then Winship Junior High and Eureka High School. Larry worked
alongside his dad, Jim Fleek, at Pacific Saw & Knife in Eureka
for many years. He was also employed at Mad River Hospital in Arcata
and was a residential house painter who took pride in the details, no
matter the time it took to finish a job.
Larry will be
remembered for the days of joy he had with his family, especially his
nieces and nephews who always looked forward to spending time with
“Uncle Bubba/Bubs.” Adventures near and far were always filled
with fun and laughter! Getting to attend the sporting events of his
stepchildren Krista, Kara and Colt when they were young were also
happy times for Larry. As a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan, he
rarely missed listening to a game on the radio or seeing it live on
TV, especially when his mom was watching along with him and loudly
rooting on “their Giants”!
Preceded in death by
his loving parents Jim and Darlene Fleek and sister Nancy, Larry is
survived by siblings Randy, Cindy, and Kathy; nieces and nephews
Jennifer, Kim, Marissa, Kelsey, Holly, Sean, Cody, and Karrie; as
well as great-nieces and great-nephews Aiden, Giselle, Connor,
Dillon, Devin, Deon, Evangeline, Savannah, Aubree, and Annabelle; and
great-great niece, Shawnie. He was dearly loved and will be greatly
missed by all.
No services are
planned at this time. Please think of Larry whenever you’re
watching a sunset at the beach, enjoying a warm day at a lake, or
walking in the quiet of a redwood forest. And remember to hug the
ones you love as often as you can for life may be shorter than you
think.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Larry Fleek’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
Bruce Bacchetti was born on June 12, 1939, in Eureka. He passed away peacefully, in his home on March 26, 2023. He was a family man and a hard worker.
When he was nine years old, he started working for the Times-Standard, delivering newspapers to the neighborhoods. He worked hard and retired after a long 50-year career with the Times-Standard.
When he was not working, he could be found in his yard. He enjoyed gardening and cutting firewood at the local lumber mill. He met many people and impacted many lives with his cheery and bright personality. He was not just a hardworking individual; he was also a family man. He was a husband, father, grandfather and papa.
He met his wife, Beverly Bacchetti, in Eureka. He loved his wife and family with all his heart. He married his wife at the young age of 18 years old and remained married for 60 years until his wife passed away in 2019. He had three children, Teressa, Brian and Michael Bacchetti. He was also an amazing grandfather to his two grandchildren, Kristen Peruchin, and Melinda Marshall. His favorite role in life was being a papa to his four great grandchildren — Anthony, Ashlynn, Alijah and Arlina.
He was an amazing man and will be greatly missed by all.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Bruce Barchetti’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
HUMBOLDT TODAY: A McKinleyville man has been arrested for allegedly murdering an ex; Governor Newsom announced that California is stockpiling abortion pills; plus, a major wind energy corporation is opening an office in Eureka. Those stories and more in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On April 8, 2023, at about 12:58 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a residence on the 1200 block of Windy Road in McKinleyville for the report of an unwanted subject. The reporting party, 41-year-old Daniel Forrest Rena-Dozier, told emergency communications dispatchers that his former partner was at the residence and refusing to leave.
While responding to the residence, Rena-Dozier advised that an altercation occurred inside the residence and one person had been shot. Deputies arrived at the residence and located a 30-year-old female victim with a gunshot wound. She was transported to a local hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries.
The Sheriff’s Major Crimes Division responded to investigate. Based upon the totality of evidence collected while on scene and interviews with Rena-Dozier and a female witness, Rena-Dozier was arrested on charges of murder. During a search of the residence, deputies located multiple firearms. One of those firearms was equipped with a homemade silencer, another was found to have its serial number removed.
Rena-Dozier was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of murder (PC 187(a)), possession of a firearm silencer (PC 33410) and tampering with the ID marks on a firearm (PC 23900).
This case is being forwarded to the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office for further review and prosecution.
The victim has been identified as Mia Simone Felder. An autopsy is in the process of being scheduled.
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.
Illustrations of the proposed Crowley Wind Services terminal via Harbor District. Click to enlarge.
The big international maritime company known as Crowley is working with the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District to build a big facility on the Samoa Peninsula, at the site of the old pulp mill, to help service the offshore wind industry.
The company has opened offices in Eureka — in the Carson Building, according to the company’s website — and it’ll be having a big launch party at the Wharfinger next Wednesday afternoon.
Press release from Crowley:
Crowley and the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce will announce the company’s new Wind Services office in Eureka, California, as part of its actions to develop an offshore wind terminal at the Port of Humboldt Bay. This event will herald the start of a partnership with the people of the region to be a U.S. leader in supporting renewable energy from offshore wind. The U.S. logistics, maritime and energy solutions company is planning the facility to support renewable energy in concert with the community and the port. Services at the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal will support tenants in the manufacturing, installation and operation of offshore wind floating platforms, the use of large heavy cargo vessels, and provide crewing and marshalling services in the Pacific waters.
Event Details
Event Location: The Wharfinger Building, 1 Marina Way, Eureka, California Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 Time: Remarks and ribbon cuttingat 3:00 PM PT. Community reception to follow
About Crowley Crowley is a privately held, U.S.-owned and -operated maritime, energy and logistics solutions company serving commercial and government sectors with $3.4 billion in annual revenues, over 170 vessels mostly in the Jones Act fleet and approximately 7,000 employees around the world – employing more U.S. mariners than any other company. The Crowley enterprise has invested more than $3.2 billion in maritime transport, which is the backbone of global trade and the global economy. As a global ship owner-operator and services provider with more than 130 years of innovation and a commitment to sustainability, the company serves customers in 36 nations and island territories through five business units: Crowley Logistics, Crowley Shipping, Crowley Solutions, Crowley Wind Services and Crowley Fuels. Additional information about Crowley, its business units and subsidiaries can be found at www.crowley.com.
Ken Pritchett clicks his mouse and the logo of a Southern California police department pops up on a computer monitor the width of his shoulders. Another click and the image flips to a three-dimensional map. A glowing orange arrow indicates the direction a man ran as he tried to evade police.
“Right here, this is the path he took in the alley,” Pritchett said, switching from the map to a still image highlighting an object in the man’s hand. “Then you can see him turn toward the officers. He wants to die. This is suicide.”
This incident, like all of the videos Pritchett produces in his home office, ended in a police shooting. Pritchett has made more than 170 of these for police departments and sheriff’s offices, mostly in California.
The video flips again, this time to the display of a shuddering body camera worn by an officer sprinting down an alley. Commands are yelled, the person being chased lifts an object with his right hand, police fire their weapons, the man falls down.
The video isn’t much different from hundreds of others produced since California passed a law in 2018 mandating police departments release body camera footage within 45 days of any incident when an officer fires a gun, or uses force that leads to great bodily injury or death. Like most other critical incident videos released by law enforcement agencies after a shooting, this one is a heavily edited version of the original raw video, created by one of the private contractors that went into business editing police footage after the law went into effect.
Pritchett, who makes more of these videos than any other private contractor in California, asked CalMatters not to disclose the name of the police department in order to preserve their business relationship.
The law has some exceptions, allowing departments to withhold video if it would endanger the investigation or put a witness at risk. Law enforcement departments often cite those reasons when regularly denying records requests by CalMatters and other news organizations.Of the 36 fatal police shooting cases since July 2021being tracked by CalMatters, only three have responded with even partial records.
Instead, the public and the media must rely on edited presentations that often include a highlighted or circled object in a person’s hand, slowed-down video to show the moments when the person may have pointed the object at police and transcriptions of the body camera’s audio.
They are also the only documentation of a fatal police encounter that the public will see for months, or years, or maybe ever.
Kenneth Pritchett edits video at his home in Sacramento on March 31, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters
Since the advent of cell phone cameras and, later, police-worn body cameras, the public has had detailed access to violent police encounters in a way it never had before. After incidents including the livestream of the aftermath of the Minnesota police shooting of Philando Castile in 2016 and the helicopter footage of the Sacramento police shooting of Stephon Clark in 2018, states including California passed a host of laws aimed at using that technology to better judge the actions of officers.
Critics allege that the problem with the condensed, heavily-edited version of the body camera footage released by law enforcement agencies is that they shape public opinion about a person’s death or injury at the hands of the police long before the department in question releases all the facts in the case or the full, raw video.
They also point to particular incidents in which a department erased or failed to transcribe audio critical to understanding the case, did not make clear which officers fired their gun or cut the video at a critical moment. In one case, a Los Angeles journalist has taken apart multiple videos released by the Los Angeles Police Department and found irregularities that she asserts are deliberate manipulations meant to justify officers’ actions. In response, she said the LAPD ignores her or directs her back to the video.
“To only release an edited version is not what we think is called for from the defendant’s point of view,” said Stephen Munkelt, executive director of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a Sacramento-based association of criminal defense attorneys. “If they’re editing things out, it’s probably the stuff that’s beneficial to the defendant.”
He also worries about the impact of the release of the body camera footage on a potential jury pool. Still, Munkelt said, some video is better than none, if only because defense attorneys have more grounds to ask a judge for the full, unedited video.
Former journalist working with California police
In response to the 2018 body camera law, a cottage industry has emerged to produce these videos, though several larger law enforcement agencies produce theirs in-house. Pritchett works for Critical Incident Video, founded, not coincidentally, when the law went into effect in 2019. According to emails obtained by The Appeal and The Vallejo Sun, Critical Incident Video charges $5,000 per video.
Pritchett is a former journalist, and insists that he applies the same scrutiny and objectivity to these videos, paid for by police departments, that he did in his former life as a television reporter and anchor in Fresno and Sacramento.
“Virtually every article we’ve seen about what we do, somebody accuses us of spinning for the police department, but I have yet to ever see an example put forward that shows that we’re spinning anything,” he said. “And if they did, tell me, for God’s sakes. My entire goal is to make these straight, spin-free.”
Not every department uses Critical Incident Video, but for the dozens that do, Pritchett’s style is unmistakable: first, the map, then usually a transcription of 911 calls, then the body camera video. Pritchett said that, if he’s done his job well, he can help head off conflict between a law enforcement agency and the public.
“I think the main issue now is people come jumping to conclusions about what happened before they’ve seen the video, which is why we recommend that (law enforcement) always get that video out there as quickly as possible,” Pritchett said. “We have done quite a few videos where there was a social media public narrative about something that happened and the video clearly shows that that didn’t happen.”
Pritchett said that, before he made his first video, he learned by watching the videos that departments produced internally. He did not like what he saw.
“Basically, what we saw was the LAPD’s videos, and I didn’t like them … I probably shouldn’t have said that,” he said with a laugh. “But I remember seeing mugshots. I remember seeing information that was not really relevant (like) previous charges. I remember thinking the whole (video) that someone had a gun, until they told me at the end that it was actually not a gun.”
So, he has rules. He will not refer to the person who was shot as a “suspect.“ He will not use mugshots of the person who was shot. He will not display previous charges or convictions of the person shot, even if the department asks him to – something that he said cost his company a client when the police department insisted on including it. If an object was later found to be anything other than a gun, he demands that the departments tell viewers that up front.
“Virtually every article we’ve seen about what we do, somebody accuses us of spinning for the police department, but I have yet to ever see an example put forward that shows that we’re spinning anything.” — Ken Pritchett, video editor for a California police department
Critical Incident Video’s process usually begins hours after a shooting. The police department or sheriff’s office will call Pritchett and send the raw footage, along with any witness video the agency has obtained. He combs through it, picking out the parts he believes are important.
He reads the initial police press release – “which is often incorrect,” he said – then reads any related media reports. He transcribes the audio of the body camera, creates a 3D map showing where the encounter began and writes a prospective script if one is requested, then tells the police to put it in their own words.
Pritchett said he pushes back against departments. Sometimes in a press release, agencies will say they immediately rendered first aid to a person they shot, but the video shows a delay.
“Sometimes that becomes a point of contention,” Pritchett said. “I’m looking at the video and say, well, how do you define immediate? We’ll change that. Like I said, we have to fight.”
Kenneth Pritchett edits video at his home in Sacramento on March 31, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters
Neither the California Police Chiefs Association nor the California State Sheriffs’ Association could be reached for comment.
Assemblymember Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who wrote the 2018 body camera law, said he has no problem with the condensed videos provided by law enforcement agencies after a shooting, because they’re much better than what was made public before the law.
“After the legislation was passed into law, we’ve seen so much more released and so much more video,” Ting said. “If a department is articulating why they acted in a particular way, that’s a good thing. They work for the public and we want accountability.”
Michele Hanisee, president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys, said the release of the videos is a balancing act, forcing prosecutors to weigh the benefit of transparency against the potential harm of prejudicing the jury pool.
“While transparency promotes public confidence in the conduct of law enforcement,” Hanisee wrote in an email to CalMatters, “the pre-trial release of evidence has the potential to influence the testimony of witnesses, create bias in potential jurors, or create an environment that could justify a change in venue.”
Replaying LAPD shooting videos
Three hundred and sixty miles south of Pritchett’s Sacramento home office, Sahra Sulaiman, a communities editor for StreetsBlog Los Angeles, is in front of her own monitor, squeezed into the two-foot patch of carpet between her couch and a knee-high table on which her laptop is perched.
Her eyes, reflected back in the dark blue of a police uniform on screen, dart back and forth between the video released by the LAPD and the time code. She rewinds, presses play, pauses the video, rewinds again.
“Did you hear it?” she asks, then presses play on the video from December 2021. “Listen again.”
Lopez stands. The police continue to shout in English and in Spanish. He holds the cleaver over his head. The body camera video’s transcription matches the words of the officers: “Hey, drop it, drop it, stop right there!”
Seconds later, officers fire live rounds, killing Lopez. Sulaiman rewinds again and turns up the volume on her laptop.
This time, a piece of audio that wasn’t transcribed by the LAPD is clear: “Forty, stand by.”
Forty, in this case, is code for a less-lethal foam projectile, a warning to other officers that what they’re about to hear are not lethal rounds.
“The protocol demands that they give the warning and then everybody stand down, wait to see what effect it has,” she said. “So he gives the warning and if you don’t know what you’re listening for, you just hear shouting. But then I realized that that’s what the warning was, and immediately, as soon as the less lethal is fired, it’s contagious fire because they didn’t hear the warning.”
Without that piece of audio, Sulaiman said, the video makes it appear that Lopez was shot after failing to comply with commands and advancing toward the officers.
“And that’s where they play with these transcriptions a little bit,” she said. “So that’s the kind of thing where if you have this different piece of information, that completely changes what this incident is.”
Sulaiman doesn’t believe the LAPD transcription left out the less-lethal warning by accident. The LAPD did not respond to specific questions from CalMatters about this incident or the video transcription.
“What these videos have taught me is how really skilled LAPD is at deflecting attention at deeper structural reform, that they are very good at pointing the finger.” — Sahra Sulaiman, communities editor for StreetsBlog Los Angeles
Since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020, Sulaiman has focused her work almost entirely on police violence.
Among her most thorough investigations was when she found the only evidence that an LAPD sergeant fired his weapon from his vehicle without stopping during a police chase on July 18, despite two other officers determining moments earlier that the man being chased didn’t have a gun.
The video never made clear which officer fired the shot that wounded 39-year-old Jermaine Petit, but in the reflection in the glass of the sergeant’s patrol car dashboard, she saw him holding up his gun and pointing it out the passenger side window. At the time of the shooting, the sergeant’s arm jerks backward. She said she had to watch the video several times, including at one-quarter speed, before she noticed the reflection.
She acknowledges that police have a difficult job in often-chaotic circumstances, trying to make life-or-death decisions. But that, she said, is their job.
“A lot of times they’ll say, oh, when we put civilians through these active shooter sort of scenarios, they just fire willy-nilly at people,” she said. “Well, yeah, ‘cause I’m not f — — - trained.
“And when you go second-by-second through these, it is certainly a lot easier to play Monday morning quarterback. But you also see that LAPD is doing the same thing when they’re constructing these narratives.”
Sulaiman said the videos themselves are a mixed bag of consequences. She’s glad that there is some video evidence of the shootings released, but said the format is ripe for manipulation by the police.
“What these videos have taught me is how really skilled LAPD is at deflecting attention at deeper structural reform,” she said. “That they are very good at pointing the finger, at localizing blame on the things that take the least amount of tweaking to fix and deflecting any kind of interest in questions of structural reform.”
Both Sulaiman and Pritchett, in their respective jobs, have had to watch hours and hours of people being shot. The images they see are not blurred. People lie dying in pools of blood, people ask why they were shot, people shout for their mothers.
“It’s tough,” Sulaiman said. “I don’t know what else to say about it.”
When asked how viewing those videos affects him, Pritchett paused for several seconds, started to speak, stopped himself, then started again.
“To be determined.”
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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
