Two men arrested in attacks on Hemet police

Hemet police announced the arrest Saturday of two men in connection with seven violent attacks against local authorities in this small Riverside County city.

Nicholas John Smit, 40, of Hemet, was booked on suspicion of attempting to murder a police officer and of building a potentially deadly booby trap. Smit already faces charges for cultivating marijuana, the result of an earlier arrest made by Hemet police, said Chief Richard Dana.

Authorities disclosed few details about what led to the arrests, saying only that physical evidence gathered from the attacks led investigators to the suspects. Dana said Smit made it clear he wasn’t fond of the police before invoking his right to remain silent.

“He made a couple statements that made us believe that he didn’t like us very much,” Dana said at a news conference Saturday with Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff and agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s a great feeling that some of these people are in custody.”

Also arrested was Steven Hansen, 36, a convicted arsonist from nearby Homeland, who was taken into custody on a parole violation for weapons possession. Hansen has not been booked in connection with any of the attacks, although Dana said charges may be filed this week.

The attacks on Hemet police started six months ago and include arson fires and a booby-trapped zip gun rigged to shoot an anti-gang investigator. As a precaution, officers were told to inspect their squad cars daily and to remain vigilant. Roadblocks went up behind the main police station, and blast-proof glass, barricades and fences were installed as well.

“The community is relieved,” said Hemet Mayor Eric McBride. “They wanted to see closure on this, and now we have some progress.”

Dana said 78 officers, sheriff’s deputies and federal agents raided the two suspects’ homes Friday. At least two other suspects remain at large, he said. He said Smit and Hansen know each other, but he declined to discuss the nature of their relationship.

On Saturday afternoon, a man inside Smit’s residence said law enforcement officers with guns and flashlights had raided the house and arrested Smit. The man declined to provide any more details.

No one came out to speak at Hansen’s residence, a mobile home next to a tire shop off busy Highway 74. The property featured a hodgepodge of sheds, a dirt front yard, a trailer, a stripped-down van and a Ford truck.

Since the attacks began in December, investigators have speculated that the crimes were the work of the Vagos motorcycle gang or a band of white supremacists. Police are still trying to determine whether Smit or Hansen are connected to any gangs.

Hemet police arrested Smit in June 2009 on charges of drug possession and cultivation. When they searched his home, they found marijuana plants inside and in the backyard. He was also arrested on charges of gun possession.

The arrests on Friday come less than a week after a suspected arson fire damaged a Hemet Police Department building that housed evidence gathered from the previous attacks, as well as evidence for thousands of pending and past criminal cases.

It was the seventh attack, and the third suspected arson.

In January, the Hemet-San Jacinto Valley Gang Task Force discovered that a natural gas line had been diverted into its office on New Year’s Eve, although the gas never ignited. A month later, a booby-trapped zip gun, or improvised pistol, fired a bullet at an officer when he opened a security gate.

In March, a suspicious device was attached to a gang enforcement officer’s unmarked vehicle; two weeks later, four city code-enforcement trucks were torched in the Hemet City Hall parking lot. In April, an early-morning fire damaged the Hemet police shooting range.

And in June, authorities found a vintage military rocket on the roof of a nearby market, pointed in the direction of the police station.

State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown visited the area two months ago with Riverside County Dist. Atty. Rod Pacheco and offered a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the attacks.

phil.willon@latimes.com