A man who repeatedly disrupted the Lakewood City Council meeting on Tuesday was subdued and detained by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department amid concerns about his behavior.
According to authorities, the incident took place around 8:20 p.m. just as the city was appointing its new mayor, Ariel Pe. In Lakewood, as in most cities of its size in California, the mayor is not elected by the public at large; rather the position is a member of the city council, and there is an annual rotation of the council members to serve as mayor for a year.
From the back of the room, the man blurted out that he wanted to nominate himself for mayor and continued to blurt out statements throughout the beginning of the meeting, city spokesperson Bill Grady wrote in a statement to the Post.
City of Lakewood Safety Commissioner Brad Crihfield was in attendance and described hearing the man say, “I’m happy to leave if the majority wants me to,” to which the audience clapped and the man left the council chambers.
He returned a few minutes later and walked promptly up to the dais then behind the council seats toward Pe, attempting to shake his hand, according to the city. “I just want to shake his hand,” Crihfield recalls him saying.
That’s when the man thrust his arm out in front of the mayor, as if he were reaching out for a handshake.
“Obviously, council members and others in the room did not know if the man innocently wanted to shake the mayor’s hand, or if he had bad intensions (sic),” Grady said.
City staff reacted and subdued the man, removing him from the council chambers as they waited for Sheriff’s Department personnel to arrive.
The man was unarmed and was not arrested. However, he was evaluated by a county mental health team, who determined he was mentally ill and placed him on a 72-hour psychological hold, according to the city.
The city will be pursuing a restraining order against the man to stop him from visiting city hall or attending council meetings in the future, Grady said.
“There is no indication the man was targeting any council member,” Grady said. “Nothing like this has happened at a Lakewood council meeting … although it could obviously happen anywhere with a mentally disturbed person.”
“We are thankful that the audience in the council chambers stayed calm, and that Sheriff’s personnel and others acted quickly to subdue the man, remove him and have him arrested and then properly evaluated,” Grady said.