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Parade kept deputies busier this year

Deputy Robert Heltmach, Special Event Coordinator for the Sheriff’s Department Fallbrook Substation, said the 2006 Fallbrook Christmas Parade went off “really well” as far as the planning and logistics but said the event was busier this year for law enforcement personnel.

“We’ve never had this many calls before from the parade, but it was manageable,” he said.

The incident that gained the most attention occurred just as the parade ended when a group of ten young gang members disturbed spectators in the vicinity of Main Avenue and Fallbrook Street. “The group was walking down the east side of Main, getting in people’s way, challenging them,” Heltmach said. “We dispatched a unit to make contact with these kids.”

Heltmach said the young teens were all dressed alike, in dark clothing with bandanas on their shoulders, which can indicate gang affiliation. “They were probably trying to intimidate people by the way they dressed; they were strutting,” Heltmach said. “The deputies said they were cooperative and left when asked.”

Other incidences reported during the parade included one episode of domestic violence, three lost children and two medical situations.

“We had a domestic violence incident that wasn’t necessarily related to the parade, but it was reported by people who were lined up in the staging area…in the vicinity of Ammunition and Alturas Roads,” Heltmach said. An arrest was made by officers responding to this call.

“We also had three children displaced from their parents at the end of the parade because of the crowding, but we ended up reuniting them with their families,” Heltmach said. “There was also a diabetic emergency at the south end of Main and a teen who had difficulty breathing on the north end of Main that required medical attention.”

 

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