By Gary Meyer—A Frazier Park man was tasered and arrested by sheriff’s deputies on Saturday, Dec. 17 after an hour’s search of Frazier Park School grounds where he was said to have had a gun and was making threats to shoot himself.

Deputies were initially dispatched to Frazier Park School on San Carlos Trail after a nearby business owner called 911 to report he could see a man in the school parking lot, holding a pistol and saying he was going to kill himself.

This reporter arrived at the school to find a film company producing a Toyota commercial, with two CHP units onsite in the parking lot. Kern County Sheriff’s deputies arrived shortly after and a search of the school campus ensued.

During the search, deputies were called to another location on San Emidio Trail for a man jumping over neighborhood fences, jumping on cars and honking a vehicle horn.

Neighbors Vidal Pineda and John Roy told The Mountain Enterprise that they had not seen the man before. They said he was not holding a gun, but had walked onto their driveway and said, “Shut your dogs up, you stupid Mexicans.”

The two men said they walked toward the man to get him away from their house and he stepped backward to the light-colored van parked next door, climbed inside and began honking the horn.

They said they didn’t think the house was occupied and that the van had been parked there for several months.

Law enforcement—including two CHP units, two Kern County deputies, a sergeant, a lieutenant and one Ventura County deputy—converged on the residential dirt road between Los Padres Drive and Antelope Valley Bank. They found the man in the parked van on the roadside. A CHP officer reported seeing him with a gun.

After shouting commands for 10 minutes. telling the man to exit the vehicle, officers—all armed with assault rifles—held their fire but continued shouting commands as the man exited the vehicle, calmly walked to the residence at 728 San Emidio, entered the house and, after shouting a few obscenities, closed the door.

Officers used a megaphone for the next 20 minutes, repeatedly commanding the man, recognized as Phillip M. Turner, 39 to come out of the house with his hands in the air. A Ventura County Sheriff’s deputy said he recognized Turner as the man who had allegedly brandished a knife at deputies on an earlier occasion.

Finally Turner exited the house and walked, with his hands up, to the rear of the van on the street. He appeared to partially comply with officers’ orders, although he would not lie face down on the street as commanded.

After being ordered not to move, the suspect reached behind his back and was immediately tasered by one of the officers. Numerous officers then took Turner into custody.
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Kern County Sheriff’s Sgt. Marvin Gomez told The Mountain Enterprise that deputies found a tomahawk inside the van, but were unable to locate a gun. According to Sgt. Gomez, Turner had been staying at the house, which belongs to his father.

Turner has over 23 prior records of criminal court actions in Kern and Ventura Counties for use of controlled substances and for domestic battery.

He was arrested on charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a dangerous weapon, misdemeanor resisting arrest and misdemeanor public drunkenness. Turner’s 40th birthday was the following day. He is being held on $50,000 bail.

UPDATE: Some charges against Turner were dropped by Friday, Dec. 23. He is still charged with resisting arrest and being a felon in illegal possession of a firearm. His bail is still $50,000 and it appers he will be spending the holidays in Kern County’s centeral jail.

This is part of the December 23, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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