Seal Beach Police on last weekend arrested a Seal Beach resident on several criminal charges that included a hate crime, civil rights violations by force and resisting a peace officer. Sgt. Nick Nicholas confirmed that an officer Tasered the man to effect the arrest.
Police identified him as Arthur Herbst, 38, of Seal Beach.
“On Saturday, August 8, 2020 at about 8:22 a.m., the Seal Beach Police Department received a call of a subject causing a disturbance at a restaurant located on 200-block of Main Street,” Nicholas wrote in an Aug. 10 email.
“The subject made racist comments toward employees and threatened to blow up the building,” Nicholas wrote.
“He also struck a customer twice, however, the customer was uninjured and declined prosecution. The subject fled prior to officers’ arrival. An officer located the subject driving a short distance away and initiated a traffic stop,” Nicholas wrote.
“The subject became immediately confrontational, aggressive, and refused to follow lawful orders made by the officer who was alone at the time. During the contact, the subject demonstrated an intent to be violent and physically resisted the officer. The officer used his Taser to take the subject into custody. The subject was seen by paramedics and transported to a local hospital with minor injuries. No officers were hurt,” Nicholas wrote.
According to Nicholas, Herbst was arrested on suspicion of “Threatening to Commit a Crime with Intent to Terrorize, Assault, Battery, Civil Rights Violation by Force, Obstruct/Resist/Delay a Peace Officer, Hate Crime, and others. He was later transported to the Orange County Jail and remanded to the custody of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.”
