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Man Shot With Rubber Bullet

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A distraught Saugus man who told sheriff’s deputies that he was armed and shouted that they should kill him was arrested after he was shot with a rubber bullet, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported Sunday.

Joseph Ferrante, 26, suffered a bruised abdomen in the 11 p.m. Saturday incident that unfolded on the front lawn of a house in the 21100 block of Cedar Falls Drive, Sgt. Mike Morton said.

Deputies went to the house to investigate a report of a fight and saw Ferrante outside. When the deputies tried to talk to Ferrante, he began shouting profanities and said he had a gun, Morton said.

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Deputies drew their guns when Ferrante reached behind his back as if to grab a weapon, Morton said. Ferrante told the deputies to shoot him because “he was apparently distraught over a love triangle,” Morton said.

Instead, the deputies retreated behind their cars and called for help.

Sgt. Wallace Fullerton arrived minutes later with a special gun that fires non-lethal rubber bullets. When Ferrante began to remove his hand from behind his back, Fullerton fired four shots, one of which struck Ferrante in the abdomen, Morton said.

He was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest. As he was being booked, Morton said, Ferrante thanked the deputies for not killing him.

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