A 39-year-old San Bernardino woman, who may have been intoxicated, was arrested today at a Cathedral City supermarket after she began throwing items in the store and then demanded that responding officers shoot her dead, a police sergeant said.
The incident at the Stater Brothers store at 67800 vista Chino Dr. began at 3:37 p.m., Cathedral City police Sgt. Corwin de Veas said.
Police officers responded to a call from the store about a woman later identified as Veronica Manzo, throwing items around, de Veas said. When officers arrived at the scene they found a woman with multiple tattoos who appeared to be under the influence of drugs holding a cane and gardening shears.
“She demanded the officers shoot her because she did not want to return to prison,” de Veas said. “She told officers she was a three-striker and she did not want to die in jail.”
Manzo then backed herself into a corner and initially refused to drop her weapons, he said. But the officers eventually calmed her down and convinced her to drop the cane and gardening shears.
She told officers she had ingested methamphetamine prior to entering the store and appeared to be under the influence of that drug, de Veas said. She was taken into custody.
Officers also found that she had an outstanding no-bail warrant issued for smuggling drugs into a prison.
Manzo was booked into Riverside County Jail in Banning for the warrant and for being under the influence of illegal drugs, de Veas said. No one was injured during the fracas.
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