S. J. police chief shows he has brawn — and humility.
Rank- and- file officers protecting city get credit fromEsquivel
SAN JOSE — One day after he tackled a murder suspect trying to escape, police Chief Larry Esquivel said he’s no hero and that the real heroes are the cops who protect the city.
Officials in his department, meanwhile, were trying to determine how a handcuffed Hector Flores Arias, 26, managed to slip out of a holding cell at police headquarters before jumping a fence and making a dash for freedom. Until he ran into Esquivel. The fit and trim amateur weight lifter, who last worked as a patrol officer nearly 25 years ago, made one unsuccessful attempt to tackle Arias before chasing him on city streets and eventually jumping on him to subdue him, just as another officer arrived. Esquivel, 53, emerged from the takedown with some scrapes and a rip in his dress shirt.
“The real heroes are the men and women that are out there every day,” Esquivel said. “I got to be a cop for just a couple of minutes but our men and women are out there every single day answering calls for service with the potential for violence.”
Since becoming chief last year, Esquivel has maintained an active presence on city streets; he tries to walk a beat somewhere in the city once a week and has been known to ride along with police trainees.
Officers who entered the force with Esquivel call him ageless, saying he still resembles the cadet they knew at the police academy, down to his flattop haircut. He exercises regularly, and in 2013 he became a national weightlifting record holder among police and firefighters in his age range by dead- lifting more than 418 pounds.
The chief had no idea when he started pursuing Arias that the man had been wanted on
“The real heroes are the men and women that are out there every day.”
— LarryEsquivel, San Jose police chief
suspicion of murder since 2009, or that Arias had just arrived at police headquarters after being extradited from Mexico, where he was arrested after six years on the run.
As Esquivel drove up to police headquarters Monday morning, all he knew was that he saw a handcuffed man coming directly toward him. Esquivel said he yelled at Arias to stop, but the suspect kept going, muttering that he wasn’t going to stop.
Esquivel tried to tackle Arias, but the move was more of a “forearm shiver.”
“He kind of lost his balance and I directly lost my balance and fell on the ground, got scraped up a little bit,” Esquivel said Tuesday.
Quickly getting up, Esquivel sprinted after Arias down Mission Street west toward Guadalupe Parkway. Arias turned right at the “T” intersection and ran toward Juvenile Hall.
He “zigzagged through traffic and luckily I was able to catch up, and he really kind of stumbled,” Esquivel said.
That’s when Esquivel jumped on Arias and held him down. Another officer who was also running after Arias, came over and the two cops brought Arias back to police headquarters.
“We were fortunate no officers were hurt,” Esquivel said.
Arias was a fugitive after being named a suspect in the May 7, 2009, shooting death of Juan Mendoza, 22, according to San Jose police. Police believe Arias fled to Mexico to evade capture.
San Jose police, working with the FBI and Mexican authorities, recently learned Arias was in San Jose de Gracia, a town east of Guadalajara. He was arrested Sunday by Mexican police — he bit two officers and tried to attack another in the course of San Jose police Chief Larry Esquivel emerged from Monday’s takedown of a murder suspect who was attempting to escape with some scrapes and a rip in his dress shirt. the arrest — and was extradited to San Jose. Once he landed in the South Bay on Monday , San Jose police transported him to the department before he was set to be booked into Santa Clara County Jail.
Arias was placed in a holding cell at the department — in handcuffs — he flipped his hands around from behind his back and somehow escaped through his holding cell door, which should lock automatically when officers close it. Police are investigating how Arias escaped the holding cell and are taking a closer look at their entire holding cell area, Sgt. Enrique Garcia said.
While still cuffed, Arias scaled a fence about 15 feet high and topped with barbed wire, and landed in the department’s parking lot for detectives.
Where he ran into Esquivel.
It marks the second time this year a prisoner escaped, if only briefly, from a Santa Clara County law enforcement agency. In February, an accused child molester who was being treated at Valley Medical Center attacked a sheriff’s deputy and fled on foot. The inmate, Johnell Carter, was arrested about one month later in Gulfport, Mississippi, after the fugitive was tracked by a joint task force with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and the U. S. Marshals Service.
Arias is being held in Santa Clara County Jail without bail.