Humboldt County is in the midst of a surge of fentanyl-related overdose deaths, alarming local officials who have long braced for the powerful opioid’s impact on the North Coast. Fentanyl has accounted for nearly 50 percent of Humboldt County’s alcohol and other drug (AOD) deaths so far this year, with five overdose deaths logged in […]
Crime
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‘He’s Not Forgotten’: Vigil Planned for David Josiah Lawson
David Josiah Lawson’s mother is intent on both making sure Humboldt County never forgets his name and giving back to the community that has embraced her, echoing her calls for justice. Lawson, a 19-year-old Humboldt State University sophomore, was fatally stabbed at an off-campus party April 15, 2017, in a case that remains unsolved with […]
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EPD Arrests Man for Alleged Sexual Assault of Child
The Eureka Police Department has arrested Jorge Alcazar Vasquez of Rio Dell for the alleged sexual abuse of a child under 10 years old after a months-length investigation. Vasquez is suspected of oral copulation or penetration with a child under 10, sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child under 10 and recurring sexual conduct with a child. The […]
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DA Names New Chief Investigator
The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office announced today that Kyla Baxley has taken on the role of chief investigator, having previous served as the senior district attorney investigator, replacing Wayne Cox, who retired on Tuesday. Baxley, who joined the office in 2013 after five years with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, grew up in Eureka […]
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Drug Task Force Reports Seizing 5K Fentanyl Pills
The Humboldt County Drug Task Force reported today making a handful of arrests and seizing more than 5,000 counterfeit Percocet pills containing fentanyl after a weeks-long investigation initiated after multiple fentanyl overdoses were reported in the Hoopa Valley. According to a press release, the investigation started March 5 when a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy working […]
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‘Real People’: Sunday’s Love Over Hate Vigil
The sun belied the chill on Sunday afternoon in the lot of the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside, some 200 people came for a walking meditation and vigil for victims of the March 16 shooting in Atlanta that targeted Asian women and took the lives of eight people. In front of the closed hall, […]
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Eureka Mayor ‘Angry’ About Alleged EPD Text Messages
Eureka Mayor Susan Seaman issued a statement this afternoon saying the text messages allegedly sent between Eureka Police Department officers that were released in a bombshell report from the Sacramento Bee earlier this week “are wholly unbecoming of any professional, or any decent human being for that matter.” “Public trust is hard to earn and […]
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Police Make DUI Arrest After Fatal Crash
The California Highway Patrol has arrested a 31-year-old on suspicion of felony driving under the influence after a fatal head-on collision on State Route 36 Saturday left a 61-year-old Blocksburg man dead, according to a press release. Police report that Andrew Harmon was driving a Dodge 3500 eastbound on State Route 36 near mile post […]
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Details Emerge in Triple Homicide; Loleta Community ‘Heartbroken’
The 18-year-old Loleta man accused of fatally shooting three people — including a 16-year-old girl — at a home on the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria Reservation on Wednesday morning was known to the victims and was a “guest in their house,” Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal told the Journal this morning. Deputies […]
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Suspect in Bear River Triple Homicide Arrested
An 18-year-old has been arrested in Utah on suspicion of murder in the deaths of three people at a home on the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria Reservation. Loleta resident Mauricio Eduardo Johnson is being held on a no-bail warrant. According to a news release, the sheriff’s office investigation “determined two vehicles associated […]
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NCJ Preview: Eureka’s Needle Exchange Battle and Supporting BIPOC Youth
This week we’re looking into how and why the city of Eureka continues to butt heads with Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction over needle exchange. Also, we’re talking about a new local nonprofit nurturing and supporting BIPOC youth, HC Black Music and Arts Association. Its organizers are putting on Harambee Liberation Month, a series […]
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Task Force Reports Finding Assault Weapon, Guns, Fentanyl in Eureka Bust
The Humboldt County Drug Task Force arrested two San Francisco men at a Eureka hotel today as a part of a fentanyl investigation after they reported finding a small arsenal, drugs and bags of blood spattered clothing. The agents raided the motel room of Joseff Gene Greek, 34, this morning and took him and Dale […]