Santa Rosa Police Department officers responded to a domestic violence call on Thursday morning at 1:30am at an apartment complex in the 2400 block of Corby Avenue. A woman and a man were outside the apartment, but when police arrived, the man fled back inside into the apartment and barricaded himself in. The woman, who had called police, had been punched and struck multiple times by the suspect.
Officers learned that there were two small children inside, ages 3 and 6 years old, and that the suspect had a gun. After 30 minutes of attempts to reach the man, officers saw him fleeing from the back of the apartment with the children, tossing them over a fence. Officers tracked him down a few houses away where the man was holding the 3 year old and refusing to comply. An officer was able to bring the man to the ground and rescue the children, unhurt.
Police later found a gun, ammo, and a high-capacity magazine in the apartment. 25-year old Juan Tovar Develasco of Santa Rosa was booked into county jail on multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of felony child endangerment, and domestic violence with visible injury among other charges.