Homeless Man Found With Weapons Cache, List Of Names In SF Golden Gate Park
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— San Francisco Police displayed an array of weapons and ammunition Wednesday that were found in a homeless man's car last month in Golden Gate Park.
Officers had prior contact with the man, but Chief of Police Greg Suhr ended up defending his department even though the suspect got past them with a large amount of weapons.
KCBS' Jeffrey Schaub Reports:
When police found a cache of guns, knives, a shotgun, 5,800 rounds of ammunition and camouflage gear in Robert Johns' car on July 21st it was thought they may have diverted some kind of planned attack.
Also in that vehicle was a list of names of political leaders, reportedly including President Barack Obama.
It turned out to be Johns' second arrest. In late June police took him into custody for having weapons in his car, but were more concerned about his mental health. John was evaluated and then later released.
Chief Suhr defended those officers when asked why they hadn't done a full search of the car at that time.
"Obviously any firepower we can get off the street, we'd rather have sooner or later, but we do have protocols in place and I think the officers did a good job at the time in evaluating the person in crisis and the approach they took,"
Suhr said in this instance, things turned out just as they should and that the most important thing was that the weapons were found and that no one was injured.
The search of the car also turned up marijuana and a methamphetamine cookbook, police said.
Johns has pleaded not guilty to eight felony and misdemeanor weapon and drug charges and will return to court on Aug. 7 for his preliminary hearing, district attorney's office spokesman Alex Bastian said.
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