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Concerned Citizens Intervene, Likely Saving Two Lives in Mendocino County · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Turning to Mendocino, two separate incidents resulted in law enforcement intervention and attempted murder charges being filed. Thanks to the actions of concerned citizens that likely saved the lives of two women in dire circumstances. On March 27, a concerned neighbor alerted the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office that gunshots were heard in a neighborhood in Little river, leading to the discovery of an alleged elder abuse situation. We turn now to our partners at the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
• 0:31
  Speaker B: My name is Quincy Cromer. I'm a captain with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. We had an incident that occurred on Thursday, March 27, at about 10:50 in the evening. The Sheriff's office deputies were dispatched to the residents in the 41,000 block of Little River Airport Road, which is in Little River, California, for a welfare check. So the caller to our dispatch reported hearing possible gunshots at a neighboring residence. And the caller became concerned for their elderly neighbor after calling that resident, and then the phone line became disconnected. So, upon the arrival of deputy sheriffs at the scene, they contacted a subject identified as Ignacio Andrade Zamora, who allowed them to enter the residence and check on the female occupant. As the deputies entered the home, they observed evidence of a firearm recently being discharged inside the residence. So they detained Andrade Zamora and continued to investigate. And they located the female resident and requested medical personnel respond to the location to provide medical aid to the female. The female was checked by medical personnel at the scene and was determined to be uninjured during the assault. So a search warrant was obtained from a Superior Court judge in the county of Mendocino, and detectives from the Sheriff's office responded to assist with this investigation. They located additional evidence there at the scene to established that probable cause of a violent assault with a firearm occurred, and Andrade Zamora was responsible for that assault. There were numerous firearms and firearm accessories that were seized by deputies, investigators serving the search warrant. And Andrade Zamora was ultimately placed under arrest for attempted murder, elder abuse, and using a firearm during the commission of a felony. And Andrade Zamora was booked into the Mendocino County Jail, where he's being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
• 2:14
  Speaker A: According to Captain Cromer, evidence at the scene indicated that the suspect was shooting at the door of a room where the victim was located.
• 2:22
  Speaker B: Yeah. So the. The scenario and the scene that existed would be that the female elderly resident was in an upstairs bedroom. And my understanding is that the suspect, Andrade Zamora, was firing rounds at the door that was closed to where the female was located. So it was in such a manner that we think there was intent and an effort, a deliberate, intentional effort to commit murder. And that's why he was charged with attempted murder on this.
• 2:49
  Speaker A: Elder abuse, Cromer said, is often under reported.
• 2:54
  Speaker B: More often than not with elder abuse, it's a very under reported situation. So a lot of times when we learn of situations involving elders and then potentially being financially, physically or emotionally abused, it comes from a witness. It could be a, you know, delivery driver, it could be a witness in public. It could be a family member, which happens frequently when they report and say, hey, I think my loved one, my elderly, you know, whoever is being taken advantage of. And that sort of sparks involvement from law enforcement, obviously, and then adult protective services. So there are mandated reporting laws, just like child abuse, that exist for elder abuse. So whenever there's, you know, a situation that we learn about that could constitute elder abuse, we are mandated to investigate it and refer it to adult protective services for support and other services that could be offered to them. But it is often under reported. But at the end of the day, I just say, if you see something, say something. If there's something that doesn't seem right with a situation involving a juvenile or an elder, report it. Because law enforcement, teachers and other people in those professions are mandated reporters, I would like to think that the general public should be mandated to report things too. If they see something they think that doesn't add up or seems weird or strange.
• 4:06
  Speaker A: If you have any information on this case, mcso would like to hear from you.
• 4:12
  Speaker B: So we are still actively investigating the situation and are requesting anyone with information to contact the sheriff's office Dispatch center at 707-463-4086. You can press option one at any time to schedule get to dispatch. And anyone that wants to provide information anonymously can do so by calling the non emergency tip line at 707-234-2100.
• 4:33
  Speaker A: The following day, a call from a concerned friend of a Fort Bragg woman sent officers to the aid of a woman allegedly being assaulted in a domestic violence incident.
• 4:44
  Speaker C: Hello, I'm Neil Cervanka, Fort Bragg chief of Police. On March 28, 2025, at about 4pm our officers received a call from a concerned friend that they believed their friend was the victim of an assault in the 100 block of Ebbing Way here in Fort Bragg. Officers went to that location and when they knocked on the door and announced themselves as police officers, they heard a woman screaming for help inside to come in. And then they heard a male trying to quiet her. One officer looked through the window and saw a male trying to push the female away from the door, up the stairs. And at that point, our officers felt her life was in imminent danger and forced entry into the house by kicking the door in. When they entered the house, the male was on the side stairs and refusing to comply with orders. And he was between the officers and the female who was now at the top of the stairs, who was still asking for help. He refused to obey commands to come down and retreated upstairs into a room, and officers followed him. They entered into that room, and after a very brief struggle with no use of force, he was taken into custody without any injury to anyone. As officers began to investigate, the bruising on the female's face was visible immediately, and she reported that she had been hit and slapped and strangled repeatedly for the past day. At one point, the suspect had strangled her with an electrical cord, and there was bruising consistent with that action on her neck. While he was doing this, he was threatening to kill her and said that he would kill her if she called the police.
• 6:51
  Speaker A: Gruer was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of attempted homicide, domestic violence, false imprisonment, and violation of a court order. Officers sought and obtained an emergency protective order for the victim and a bail enhancement for Gruer, raising his bail to $500,000. Chief Cervenka said that there are often reasons why victims of domestic violence don't report the abuse to authorities.
• 7:18
  Speaker C: So domestic violence goes unreported very often for embarrassment or fear of loss of income. There's a variety of reasons why it goes unreported. Sometimes they believe people, that police officers won't believe them. In this case, the female victim was threatened with death if she called the police. So that is not uncommon, and we encounter that more often than we would like.
• 7:54
  Speaker A: Friends and family may also be wary of calling law enforcement. However, that call could save a person's life.
• 8:01
  Speaker C: If you have a gut feeling something is wrong, call us. This started as a welfare check because her friend wasn't sure. She just had a bad feeling. So, you know, a welfare check is just generally quick and unobtrusive. If the person was wrong in their gut feeling, we don't say who called. We're just checking on the welfare, making sure everyone's okay. And oftentimes these domestic violence incidents, that's how we find out about them, is because a concerned friend, a family member, a neighbor hears something, hears screaming, something's not right, and they call us. We go, do a welfare check, and then that leads to the discovery of violence and injury, and then we can stop it right there.
• 8:54
  Speaker A: There are resources for those experiencing domestic violence in Mendocino county.
• 8:59
  Speaker C: There's lots of organizations in our area. Project sanctuary is an excellent organization that you can reach out to if you're the victim of domestic violence. If you're hesitant to go to law enforcement, you can always go to project sanctuary. They can help get you out of a situation. They can help move you. They can help with legal. They can help with restraining orders. So reach out to those organizations and it's only going to get worse. We see the repetitive cycle over and over in domestic violence where there's an assault and then there's apology and then they make up and they promise they'll never do it again, and then they do it again, and it just continually gets worse and worse and worse. I don't know specifically if there's one, but all of the fatal incidents of domestic violence all began with lesser assaults, with slaps and hits, and usually with emotional abuse of name calling and jealousy. So it is an escalating crime that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.
• 10:14
  Speaker A: Resources nationwide can be found online at thehotline.org or by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233. Reporting for KMA News, I'm Lisa Music.