New details emerge in Santa Cruz search
SANTA CRUZ >> Police have released details on the circumstances leading up to a multi-hour search Tuesday.
Officers, responding to an alleged report of a battery and domestic disturbance at a home on the 200 block of Felix Street shortly before 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, initially were unable to locate the suspected assailant.
Arriving officers were told Jesse James Higdon, 38, allegedly brandished a semi-automatic handgun during the course of a physical altercation in which he pointed it at the victim and threatened to kill him.
Police also were told Higdon, who was known to residents of the Felix Street home and neighbor involved, was suffering end-of-the-world paranoid ideations and threatening suicide. Santa Cruz Police Department personnel took a cautious approach, calling in negotiators assigned to the Santa Cruz Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit, thoroughly searching the neighborhood and sending notifications for area residents and nearby school personnel to stay indoors, Lt. Arnold Vasquez said.
Higdon was taken into custody peacefully around 5:30 p.m. on the 100 block of Golf Club Drive. He remained Wednesday in Santa Cruz County Jail, held in lieu of $100,000 bail and booked on suspicion of criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and battery.
Vasquez said that police had not recovered the handgun allegedly involved. The case remained under investigation Wednesday.