Herrera arrest

On Sunday April 5th, 2015, I, Officer Schneider, was in full uniform and assigned to marked unit East-4 during the evening shift. The following is a summary of events that I witnessed as they pertain to incident #15014898:

At approximately 7:44 pm I was dispatched to the area of Sydney Street for a report of shots fired. While responding to the area, Officer Chris Collette (East-3), notified units over the radio that he had just recently been in the area of Temple Street and Sydney Street, where he witnessed two black males, one with dread locks in a pony tail and a Hispanic male wearing a North Face jacket walking down Sydney Street. Dispatch confirmed the description that Officer Collette gave out as matching the reporting person’s description.

I arrived a short time later along with Officer Collette, where I observed a black male and a Hispanic male with a North Face type jacket walking across Temple Street towards the Mystic Projects. I caught up with the two males in the parking lot of Central Convenience. After speaking with the males for a short time, it became apparent that they were not involved in the incident. Officer Anderson (Unit-200), and Sergeant DiGregorio (Sierra-8) arrived on scene.

Officer Collette stopped a Hispanic male he believed to match the description of the suspects in the Central Convenience parking lot. The male was identified as Santiago Herrera. Herrera was standing next to the drivers side of his car when he was stopped. Officer Collette performed a pat frisk of Herrera and discovered a white grocery bag full of approximately 1.5 oz of green leafy substance believed to be marijuana. See Officer Collette’s supplemental report for a summary of his interaction with Herrera.

I asked Herrera some general investigative questions about where he was coming from and what he was doing. Herrera seemed very nervous and his answers were inconsistent. I performed a pat frisk of the areas in the vehicle I believed Herrera may have discarded a firearm prior to Officers arrival. I searched the driver’s side front and back areas and opened the trunk of the vehicle. In the trunk of the vehicle I observed a black North Face backpack. The main pouch of the backpack was open I could see what appeared to be several heat sealed bags of green leafy substance that I believed to be marijuana. I picked up the backpack and observed that inside the second open pouch was a large pile of cash.

I placed Herrera under arrest, handcuffing him in a manner consistent with my training. Herrera was transported back to the station by Officer Anderson in the prisoner transport unit (Unit-200), where he was booked in the usual manner by Lt. Vivolo. I secured the backpack in my cruiser and transported it back to the station. Herrera’s vehicle was towed with authorization from Sergeant Digregorio to the police station for further investigation.

Officer Collette tagged the evidence and secured it in the usual manner.