The suspect, 38-year-old Norman Wallsh, was sleeping in the bushes on Carnegie Lane near Rindge Lane, a residential area in Redondo Beach, when the officer approached him after receiving a call. Wallsh allegedly procured the zip gun from a bag next to him and pointed it at the officer, who mistook the makeshift gun for a pair of nunchucks, a martial arts weapon. The officer tried to taze the suspect but was unsuccessful because only one of the two tazer probes made contact with the suspect. Wallsh, unable to fire the gun, dropped the weapon and ran away. Assisting officers soon thereafter took him into custody and arrested him.
“This was a very unique incident because the officer did not know he was looking at a firearm,” said Sergeant Fabian Saucedo of the Redondo Beach Police Department. “He thought the guy had a pair of nunchucks that were folded in half.”
According to police reports, the gun was made of two 11-inch galvanized pipes that were taped together with electrical tape. One barrel had an expended 12 gauge shotgun shell and the other barrel had a live 12-gauge shotgun round inserted inside. The zip gun was capable of being fired by pulling back on a block of wood that would cause a nail to strike the primer of the 12-gauge shotgun round, and thereby release the lead shot inside the round.
Wallsh was arraigned Thursday at the Torrance Superior Courthouse where he pleaded not guilty to three felony charges: attempted murder of a peace officer, shooting at an unoccupied vehicle, and possession of a zip gun.
Public information officer Ricardo Santiago confirmed that the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office is currently investigating reports that Wallsh shot through a car window earlier on Monday with the same gun.
If convicted of attempted murder of a peace officer, Wallsh faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. His bail was set at $1,070,000.
Redondo Beach Mayor Steve Aspel lauded the way the police officers handled the situation.
“I’m really thankful that he didn’t hit our cop and that our officer didn’t shoot him,” Aspel said. “That was really restraint [the police officers] showed. A lot of other places in the world we might have had a dead man out there.”
Though Aspel does not attribute the incident to the city’s significant homeless population, some local residents have expressed concern about the issue. The Homeless Task Force, made up of ten individuals appointed by interim city manager Joe Hoefgen, seeks to address these concerns and held its first meeting earlier this month on September 8. Among the group’s planned actions is creating an inventory of existing programs and services for the homeless, recommending ways to reduce the impact of homeless on public safety resources, and presenting a report of findings to the Redondo Beach City Council next spring.
“Our aim is not to just push it from one place to another,” Hoefgen said. “We want to see what could be done in partnership with outside agencies, local churches, and nonprofits to try to better address the growing challenge not just in Redondo, but throughout the South Bay.”
