Two people are facing charges after a gun brandishing incident at the Cheesecake Factory in Walnut Creek.
The following information is from the Walnut Creek Police Dept.:
A quick response by Walnut Creek Police Department prevented a potentially dangerous situation from escalating. Walnut Creek officers were called to The Cheesecake Factory on Locust Street Sunday afternoon around 5:00 p.m. after receiving a report of a man with a gun.
Upon arrival, officers detained several people without incident and determined this was a targeted act.
Taken into custody were 21-year-old Lauren Lopez and 20-year-old Joshua Miles, both from San Francisco.
During a fight between several customers, Miles brandished a gun, which was registered to Lopez. After the scene was secured, police canvassed the area and located a bag hidden in a water fountain next to the table where the couple had been eating.
Found inside was a loaded Glock handgun with two extra magazines, as well as a wallet belonging to one of those arrested.
Charges include possession of a firearm and conspiracy to commit a crime.
50 comments
Walnut Creek’s getting a little rough lately.
I was thinking the same thing!
Nothing to see hear folks, move along.
Oops, ‘here’
But will DA Becton prosecute?
Only if they are white. Sounds like at least 1 isn’t.
About time this was posted and incidents are not hidden from the populace. This should have been on the local news networks but of course it was not since that is also controlled by the leftists. Guess incidents like this are on a need to know basis. Current politicos better get with it as “WE NEED TO KNOW.” This goes for the current police chief in WC.
It was posted on other local websites. The harder this administration, from top to bottom, try to hide the out of control thievery and crimes, the more we will shine the light on those incidents.
We are watching all of you who try to hide the truth.
Sam Malone
Why should it be on the local news. This thing is now a daily occurance in central county. It was getting this way when I left and it has no peak in activity in site
Also the “populace” would rather live with their heads in the sand than to know the truth as the truth will tarnish the thought that they live in an upscale utopia vs the real world. They think money buys safety but that is the farthest thing from the truth.
Anonymous
I might be able to top that with the Y Club, (then it became Dillon then Y again) Main St Tavern, Columbo’s and a quick run through the Trails End (5 minutes was enough of that place). And who can forget College Lane (now Whiskey Lane) and Oscar’s & Dela Pipa the county hangouts. Martinez was way more fun than Concord & WC. All WC had back then was Tar & Feathers & Crogans.
… another in a long list of recent violent incidents… WC is not what it used to be…
Well Randy I think the good people of WC are learning money does not buy safety. For years the wrinkled their noses at placeslike Martinez, well guess what WC don’t see much of this nonsense happening in Martinez. Hmmmmm
I’m so grateful I live in a place where people can be out at night, walk around town at 10pm, midnight, 2am etc and not worry about this type of thing happening.
You will notice none of the perps are from Walnut Creek. They either take 24 or 680 or come from over the hill to get here. In my neighborhood away from downtown you can walk around any time you wish. Money has nothing to do with it. To tell the truth I don’t see anyone wrinkling up their noses either. Sounds a little paranoid to me.
@Well Folks The reason Martinez doesn’t have these problems is Martinez has little or no nightlife and even when it did (30+ years ago), it only attracted locals.
With all its bars and restaurants. Walnut Creek has always been the primary spot for nightlife.
The difference between now and 30 years ago — when a girl could walk in downtown WC alone safely at 2:00 AM — is policing.
WCPD was on the ball in the old days. They knew who was out-of-place and they profiled.
Today, they are afraid to. Groups like Antifa and BLM got exactly what they wanted: weakened policing. And now we have a DA who won’t prosecute. Contra Costa wanted her and they got her.
Liberals destroy everything they touch.
Ricardoh
Where I live we can walk downtown near the bars and restaurants at all hours not just near housing. And yes money DOES have everything to do with it as the residence have lived with the “can’t/won’t happen here” attitude way to long. They are now getting a dose of reality. You in WC are no better and have it no better than Concord yet you all refer to Concord as ghetto. Well welcome to the ghetto
Anonymous
You haven’t been to Martinez recently. There is nightlife. There are 3 bars downtown. Actually there have always been bars in downtown Martinez. There was a point 20 years ago that there were more bars than restaurants in downtown Martinez. The Cheesecake Factory is not exactly in nightlife central for WC. Just face in the area has been overdeveloped and with that there comes crime. The one thing Martinez still has that WC and Concord are both missing is a sense of community. Way easier to keep that in a small setting that has not been overdeveloped.
@Well Folks, I disagree. Money can and does buy safety. Alamo and Danville don’t seem to be having thugs running through their towns brandishing guns.
What has happened is that the WC city council and WCPD have gone woke. In the past, the city council saw WC as a mecca for upscale shopping and dining. The WCPD enforced the laws and everything was fine.
Then came BLM and riots and for whatever reason, the WC city council instructed the WCPD to stand down and allow rioters to run through downtown to loot, smash windows and accost diners. The message is clear…WC is the place for east bay thugs to gather.
It’s baffling why the city council would choose this approach but there is is.
Anonymous and BORbeliever are exactly correct in their analysis. This all rest with the WC City Council and the restrictions likely placed on the chief of police during the rioting of last year.
108RS
BORbeliever
Half of the crap that goes on in Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda does not get reported. The wealthy can keep it away from the press and the SO rent-a-cops are really good about keep quiet.
The other thing is they have kept the community’s small. None have their own PD what they have is a handful of rent-a-cops from the SO.
Even with the crazy stack a pack building in Lafayette is will never reach Walnut Creek’s size. But do not fool yourself gun/weapons crime doesn’t happen. It was happening when I grew up in Lafayette. It’s just something that is kept under wraps
@Well Folks, Of course there is crime everywhere. It’s even in rural cities. The difference is the response. Let me know when we have rioters running through the streets of Danville breaking windows and stealing things while the SO rent-a-cops do nothing. I’ll wait.
BORbeliever
It’s coming and no amount of money can stop it. And the SO does not send out their best to be rent-a-cops.
@Well Folks – I played the Martinez nightlife scene back in the days of La Beau’s and Ferry Street Station. That’s how far back I go. I’m not a regular at any bar these days, but I get to downtown Martinez on a regular basis. The current nightlife there is nothing like the past. I remember people spilling into Ferry Street back then. Today, it’s more subdued. The fact Martinez has always mostly attracted locals is why they don’t have the same problems as WC. And I think there is a belief that Martinez is not as welcoming to certain types as WC. However, there is a woke shop owner crowd in Martinez trying to turn it into a little Berkeley. For instance, that manager from States Coffee that organized the BLM protests. And he’s not alone.
The Martinez city council and management are leaning woke these days, as are the police. It’s only a matter of time before they begin to tolerate behavior they would never tolerate in the past.
From a purely practical standpoint, downtown WC provides easy access to two freeways. Martinez, not so much. If I was a dirt ball looking to cause problems, Martinez would be a bad choice.
Just another evening in the new ghetto.
@The Wizard….”In the ghetto….”-EP
nytemuvr, There is a great version of that song in the movie Nebraska. Its a karaoke song being done at a restaurant.
Not that I support the limited capacity law, but if these creeps had magazines that held more than 10 rounds, add another charge!
Good luck proving they were not purchased during freedom week, in which case they are legal.
Western bars attract the country music crowd. Cheesecake Factory attracts the Hip Hop crowd. There’s no Cheesecake Factory in Oakland, Antioch, or Richmond so they all flock to Walnut Creek to get dem sum tasty cheesecake wit da right vibe.
Well, if people were allowed to apply and receive a concealed carry permit, some of this crap wouldn’t happen. The would be aggressor wouldn’t know who was carrying. Might cut down on these instances.
Too much liability having Haydens walking the streets, flexing their trigger finger instincts at every establishment when a whiff of disturbance is detected. WC wants all the bling and bustle, now it needs to patrol and monitor the hot spots to make packing in public a stupid decision.
BFF Out!
Open carry … at the ready. I’m sure no one would be so foolish as to pull a stunt like this with a few of the open carry guys around. We’d all be safer.
“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” -― Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon.
BFF
People like Hayden don’t realize the perp already has gun in hand and can blow his head off as he goes for his.
I can see perfect logic at play here. That’s why we never see one armed gang fighting with another armed gang because they would not be so foolish to pull a gun on another gang knowing that they are armed. And that’s why these armed gangs are so polite, after all an armed gang is a polite gang.
Nobody cares what gangs do to each other, or if they are polite to one-another. Society shouldn’t have to tolerate gang BS, or other criminal predators who have a perception the average citizen is easy prey. Us, law abiding citizens, this is our turf, and how else can we send a message to violent criminals, and gangs that they are not welcome in our cities or neighborhoods? That is, unless they can be polite while visiting.
Well Folks,
I’m your huckleberry. Better trained than anyone on WCPD, HR218.
108RS
I question their covid status. People this dangerous must be anti-vaxers!
I was just thinking that they sound like anti-mask nutjobs who probably got their panties in a wad after being told they needed to leave if they weren’t going to mask up. That’s the type who carries a gun in public, unconcerned with anyone but themselves.
This is how these people socialize, and downtown Walnut Creek is earning its “street cred”.
Hopefully the perps are not able to use “The Cheesecake Defense”.
Looks like the creek is becoming the new cesspool of CCC.
It always baffles me when someone says something so stupid. I wonder is that an adult or some crazy teenager.
I don’t recognize Walnut Creek anymore.
t’s as if East County and Oakland opened their sewers and they all flushed in.
Time to take our City back.
Cheesecake FactoryHjas taken a nose dive since the pandemic. Wait times are too long for a lousy days old greasy meal.
People get angry and this is where is leads now.
A little rough Aunt Barbara.
I agree Aunt Barbara. This isn’t the Walnut Creek I know and love.
@Ricardoh….Don’t even get her started on leaf……ahhh, nevermind.
Yes, you are seeing a lot of gun violence now in Walnut Creek, shootings, murders and so forth. Walnut Creek used to be a really safe city, but not anymore, at least not at night it isn’t. I think the recent decision by city staff to open up a bunch of franchised cannabis stores in WC will exacerbate the problem. Gun toting bad guys will start driving to WC to score pot, and you can predict some of the more brazen gangsters will start robbing the pot stores eventually, which will almost certainly lead to more gun violence in WC. Sad to see so many PD Chiefs up and down the state supporting the opening up of these stores in their cities that sell cannabis; these PD Chiefs want a “cut” of the legal dope sales for their departments, even though cops in the bay area make a fantastic wage. Greed is so rampant now in California, a lot of people are moving away for that reason, and I don’t blame them. To see city officials in WC just panting to get in on this cannabis tax revenue just sickens me -Walnut Creek is awash in tax revenue, the city doesn’t even need the money, but these losers working at the city are charging ahead -scheming to open up pot franchises. Pot leads to harder drugs for many users, just check out all the homeless people on the streets in California these days, they all started with pot, graduating to harder drugs, which are now often laced with fentanyl. 600 people died of fentanyl in SF last year. Did I mention they have a lot of pot stores in SF? Have WC City officials been to SF lately? People openly shoot up now on the streets in SF, ;public parks and streets are full of discarded used needles. Cities, as they did in the past, should be discouraging drug abuse by the citizenry, especially kids,, but instead city officials in WC are trying to get in on the “profits” so they can get big fat raises for themselves.
This has nothing to do with Pot Stores. It started when the BLM protest came to Walnut Creek and a weak chief of Police told his officers to not to act while protestors damaged buildings, looted stores, harassed shoppers and diners all while police officers looked on unable to do anything. Once criminals know they are in control they take over.
ConcordRes2
Lars is one of those old people stuck in the 1960’s who thinks that pot is the root of all evil. He also thinks he’s an expert on Govt funding, programs etc.
I saw the video on YouTube, people bashing windows, looting businesses, and such,……it made me angry to watch. The camera man went so far to say to the police, “Just pull out your guns and shoot somebody”.
People have lost civility and respect towards one-another, as if, burning down the local coffee shop or Apple Store is road to social justice.
The entire state of California is quickly becoming an “Abandoned Zone” as foreseen by Robert Heinlein in some of his science fiction. No police to speak of, everyone does as they please, life is cheap and death can come when you least expect it.
When the law isn’t enforced and upheld, it becomes a suggestion, at best.
They have destroyed the police department in Walnut Creek. At a time when Oakland, Antioch, Richmond and San Francisco are essentially safe zones for criminals that have autonomy to go to other “wealthy” communities and victimize residents and businesses, a strong local police force is more important than ever. Unfortunately, as others have noted, over the past two years Walnut Creek caved to the lies and slander of the BLM and Miles Hall groups. Former Chiefs Thomas Chaplin and temporary Chief Jay Hill failed their officers and the community by not standing up to these groups or the disastrously failed policies that drove the best officers away. Those remaining hide away and basically do nothing until after a crime occurs. Who can blame them when they have no internal support. Now we have another woke Chief (he’s gay if he hasn’t mentioned it yet) that has zero Chief experience and will do or say anything the council or city manager want to appease left-wing activists. It’s a crazy time with crime rising everywhere. I don’t think Walnut Creek has ever had three murders and a handful of other shooting close calls. And it’s only October! The seemingly random nature of violent crime now puts all of us at risk. There is no accountability as these “leaders” fail time and again and we, the residents, are left with the consequences.
Bingo!
Well said.
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