Man Arrested After Using Toy Gun to Get His Religious Message Read on TV

A man described by police as having mental problems pulled a toy gun on a sportscaster during a live television newscast Friday and demanded that a religious message be read on the air. He later surrendered to police.

The message was read for a few seconds on the air over KJEO-TV before the station ran a commercial and then went blank until the incident was over.

Sportscaster Marc Cotta, who read the statement, said the suspect, identified as David Dione Pretzer, 21, of nearby Clovis demanded that his message be read so that his soul could be saved.

“He told me that I had to read it to save his soul,” Cotta said. “So I read it and it was some sort of Christian message with some Bible passages in it. It wasn’t too distorted but my mind was distorted so I don’t remember what it was.”

In August, consumer reporter David Horowitz of Los Angeles TV station KNBC was interrupted during a live news broadcast by a man who entered the set wielding a toy .45-caliber pistol.

Horowitz on Friday joined Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley at the signing of an ordinance outlawing the sale and manufacture of realistic toy guns in the nation’s second-largest city. The ban takes effect after Christmas.

KJEO’s Cotta said he had met Pretzer earlier in the evening when the suspect asked for a quick tour of the studio.

“They showed him out of the building and then right as I was getting ready to do my first sportscast, he walked onto the set with this gun, pointed it at me and asked me to read a message.

“At that point, I tried to read the message but I didn’t do a very good job with the gun--I didn’t know if it was real or not--pointed at me. So he told me to stop, I wasn’t doing a good job. Start over again and read it right.

“I told him that I would promise to read his message if he would put the gun down.

“So, we managed to talk him into putting the gun down and then the studio crew quickly pushed the buttons to make it look like we were live on the air when we were really showing something else on the air, and I read the message so he had the illusion it was going out over the air.”

Police spokesman Jerry Davis said Pretzer gained access to the studio of KJEO-TV through a back door.

“He confronted females working in an office area and displayed what appeared to be a handgun, but was later found to be a plastic toy gun,” Davis said.

Pretzer then allegedly asked to be taken to a news area and was confronted by production manager Abe Espinoza, who asked Pretzer what he wanted. Pretzer displayed the toy handgun and said he wanted to read a statement on the air.

Espinoza tried to direct Pretzer into a news room not in use, but Pretzer saw the lights on in the adjoining studio, where the 5 p.m. news was on the air, police said.

Pretzer walked onto the set and put the weapon against Cotta’s back. He put the weapon down as police arrived. They arrested him without a struggle.

Officers said Pretzer “appeared to be having mental problems,” according to Davis.

Pretzer was taken to the Fresno Police Department and booked and jailed on suspicion of false imprisonment for holding employees of the television station against their will.

Additional charges are expected to be filed, police said.