Less than a week after a detective was stabbed at fast food restaurant in Canyon Country, deputies launched a crackdown in the very same neighborhood, arresting at least three.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to keep Santa Clarita Valley safe,” Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, wrote in a social media post Monday.
The Special Assignment Team “has been keeping busy” she noted, conducting directed patrol in Newhall and Canyon Country, “particularly in areas where residents have expressed concerns over possible gang activity.”
On Wednesday, while patrolling Canyon Country, near Soledad Canyon Road and Crossglade Avenue, deputies made contact with a known gang member, a 34-year-old, who was arrested on a $50,000 warrant for charges he sold narcotics.
Last Monday, deputies converged on an area a few blocks away, after a detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Special Victims Bureau was stabbed in the parking lot of the Jack in the Box on Soledad Canyon Road and Crossglade.
A suspect in the stabbing was arrested after deputies shut down around Crossglade, north of Soledad. The wounded detective, according to sheriff’s officials, was expected to make a full recovery.
Two days later, Sheriff’s Station officials launched their crackdown.
“(SAT members) conducted several traffic stops and pedestrian stops over the last few days, making notes of who they encountered,” Miller posted Monday. “Arrests were made for possession of narcotics paraphernalia and possession of methamphetamine.”
The operations continued throughout the week.
“On Friday, SAT team deputies located a ‘Parolee at Large’ when they conducted a traffic stop and the driver, Jonathan Blankenship, age 34, had a No Bail Parole violation for car theft,” according to the post. He was also found to be in possession of heroin.
“His passenger, a female white adult, age 31, was in possession of methamphetamine, a scale, baggies, and U.S. Currency,” she noted.
Both suspects were arrested, transported and booked at SCV Sheriff’s Station.
This week, SAT team deputies are expected to continue carrying out their “directed patrol” in Newhall and Canyon Country.
Miller closed her post Monday, noting SAT members are: “making their presence known.”
