A 20-year-old Oakland man was arrested by SFPD officers on Saturday night both for violating local sheltering orders and for being in possession of a bunch of drugs for sale.
The SFPD reports that they arrested and charged Wilmer Vargas-Arrazola after warning him twice on the streets of the Tenderloin that he appeared to be in violation of shelter-in-place orders. Vargas-Arrazola was first spotted by officers around 3 p.m. on Saturday, as the East Bay Times explains, near the intersection of McAllister and Leavenworth. The officers reportedly told Vargas-Arrazola that he was violating stay-at-home orders, and he allegedly ignored them and was seen continuing to ply his trade hours later in the same neighborhood.
Around 7 p.m., officers say they warned Vargas-Arrazola a second time, and at 7:20 p.m., he was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of drugs for sale — as the Examiner reports, he was found to be holding quantities of heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, and officers also confiscated $477 in cash.
All of the drugs, as shown in the photo below, were packaged for sale in small quantities.
Last night at Lev/McAllister Tenderloin Officers warned Wilmer Vargas-Arrazola, 20, of Oakland that he was violating the Shelter in Place order. He refused to comply. Hours later we arrested & booked him at CJ for SIP viol, PFS Heroin, Cocaine, Fentanyl. $477 seized. 200260107. pic.twitter.com/wDOaJVrrea
— SFPD Tenderloin (@SFPDTenderloin) April 26, 2020
SFPD Chief William Scott spoke at Monday's mayoral press conference, and he said that the department has received relatively few complaints about residents not complying with sheltering orders, or the order pertaining to face coverings in public.
He further provided an update an update on recent crime statistics, noting that there was a 19% drop in overall violent crime in the past week compared to the week prior, a 23% decrease in serious crimes, and a 24% decrease in property crimes in the past week as well, amounting to 126 fewer property crimes. He said there had been a slight uptick in commercial burglaries, but the department was making progress on those investigations, and so far there have already been 27 cases that have resulted in charges of looting during a state of emergency.