Police arrest man burned by flash bang device

BARSTOW — A man burned during a raid on his house earlier this month was arrested for bullets police found weeks ago.

Police took Charles Sherman, 42, into custody on Friday evening for suspicion of possession of ammunition by a person prohibited from having a firearm, a Barstow police report stated. The ammunition was found during a Jan. 8 search of Sherman’s house on the 300 block of Third Street. A flash bang diversionary device later injured Sherman during another search of his residence on Jan. 16.

Sgt. Andy Espinoza Sr. said the police held off arresting Sherman, who is not allowed to have ammunition due to a felony conviction in Pomona years ago, until Friday because he is part of the investigation into an attempted murder on nearby Pallesi Street. The two searches of Sherman’s house — the Jan. 8 one by consent and the Jan. 16 one by a sheriff’s SWAT unit — were part of that investigation.

“At that time, we just held off on that trying to put a case together,” Espinoza said.

Sherman was taken to the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, detained overnight and released. He denied involvement in or knowing anything about the attempted murder. He said that the ammunition the police found was not his, and that said he had found it while cleaning a house and took it so kids would not play with it. Waiting 17 days to arrested him after finding the ammunition, he said, was harassment by the police department.

“They should have arrested me then,” Sherman said.

He plans on filing formal complaints and a lawsuit against the police department over his treatment and the injuries he sustained during the Jan. 16 search. A San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team threw the flash bang device, which makes a loud noise and emits bright a light, into Sherman’s bed early that morning, burning parts of his body. Espinoza said medical personnel evaluated Sherman at West Valley and cleared him to be detained.

The investigation into the Pallesi Street attempted murder continues, Espinoza said. On Jan. 6, police officers found a 53-year-old Barstow man suffering from a single gunshot wound to the stomach in his residence on the 300 block of Pallesi Street. The victim told police at the scene that two men attempted to rob him, shot him and then fled the residence.

Anyone with information about the shooting can call the Barstow Police Department at 256-2211. People with information that wish to remain anonymous can call WeTip at 1-800-78-CRIME or leave information on the WeTip Web site at www.wetip.com.

Contact the writer:

(760) 256-4121 or aaron_aupperlee@link.freedom.com