Chico police have busy weekend
Local law enforcement had a busy weekend in Chico with incidents ranging from possible domestic violence to fleeing an accident to a death in an alley.
A possible domestic violence situation prompted heavy Chico Police Department response Sunday, but officers determined it to be low significance after about 40 minutes and left the scene.
An uninvolved individual called police and reported a verbal dispute taking place inside an apartment in the 2700 block of White Avenue in north Chico at 11:12 a.m. Seven police patrol vehicles arrived, including one K-9 unit, along with a Chico Fire Department truck and a paramedic supervisor. Butte County Behavioral Health's Mobile Crisis Unit also dispatched a representative.
A woman could be seen on the apartment's balcony, shouting to police officers on the ground that she refused to let them enter and if they wished to come in, they'd need to obtain a warrant.
No other participant in the dispute was visible.
Chico Police Lt. Terry Tupper said at the scene that officers spoke to the woman but after a while determined there was no evidence of a crime being committed and “disengaged” — released the responding officers — at 11:54 a.m.
Wanted man crashes, flees, caught
A Concow man crashed his car into a fire hydrant at the intersection of West Sacramento and Nord avenues in west Chico at 5 a.m. Sunday, causing flooding from the broken pipe. He fled south on Nord.
An arriving officer arrested Levi Nierenhausen, 24, after seeing him walking along Nord Avenue and matching the description. The officer determined the man, ultimately identified
as Nierenhausen, was giving a false name; the man was positively identified as the man who fled from the crashed vehicle.
Nierenhausen's troubles grew exponentially as the officer also learned Nierenhausen had burglarized a vehicle shortly before destroying the fire hydrant.
Chico police already wanted Nierenhausen for evading police in a stolen vehicle Feb. 4, when he drove away when police tried to stop him. Nierenhausen drove with extreme disregard for public safety during these evasions, reaching 100 mph on the Esplanade while
officers pursued him. Police elected to end the chase due to the high risk to the public of Nierenhausen's driving.
It turned out the Butte County Sheriff's Office already wanted Nierenhausen, too, for three felony warrants as well as a “failure to yield” incident.
Chico police charged him with hit and run, burglary, possession of burglary tools, vehicle theft, possession of stolen property, failure to yield with wanton disregard for public safety, and providing a false name. Police transported Nierenhausen to the Butte County Jail in Oroville, where he's being
held with no bail.
Woman dies near downtown
A man waved down a Chico Fire Department truck's personnel at the corner of East Fourth and Orient streets early Saturday, reporting that his female companion had stopped breathing.
When firefighters checked on the woman, they found she had died. They summoned the Chico Police Department, and responding officers learned from the unidentified man that he and the woman had been consuming alcohol most of Friday and then fentanyl before going to sleep in a nearby alley around 5 p.m.
When the man woke at 1:30 Saturday morning, he noticed the woman was no longer breathing; he then went to summon help and got the attention of passing firefighters at 1:44 a.m.
Chico police say they're withholding the woman's name until they can notify next of kin. The cause of death will be released following a report from the Butte County Coroner's Office.