Talk About a Citizen’s Arrest

Paul Buehlman had finished delivering pianos for the day and was looking forward to surfing at Huntington Beach. But instead of riding the waves, Buehlman came to the aid of two Anaheim police officers who were getting beaten up by a parolee they were trying to arrest.

“At one point [the suspect] had his hand on my gun,” Officer Cathy Johnson said. “You never know what could have happened. He walked in at the right moment.”

The scuffle began when Johnson was driving on the west side of Anaheim and a man on a bike caught her attention. William Joseph Young was wobbling while he rode, and Johnson also noticed a sap, a metal ball attached to a leather handle, jutting from his pocket.

Johnson said that when she tried to arrest Young for having the illegal weapon, he went into a rage. The officer said he began swearing at her and yelling, “I’m not going back.”

Officer Alisha Galvan, who had been called as backup, was thrown into Lincoln Avenue by Young, police said. He got Johnson in a headlock and then tossed her onto the sidewalk. When she got up, Young punched her in the eye, according to police, and shouted, “Bring it on. Go ahead and kill me.”

Buehlman, 26, of Huntington Beach was driving by when he saw the fight. He came from a family of police officers, and he often rode along with uncles and cousins who worked in Compton, so he had an affinity for the officers.

He parked his truck and ran across the street to help. “I saw cops flying to the middle of the street,” said Buehlman, who is 6 foot 4, 180 pounds.

He said he kicked Young in the face, then grabbed his right arm and twisted his wrist until the officers could handcuff him.

Buehlman kept yelling, “Stop resisting arrest or else I’ll break your arm,” Johnson said.

Johnson suffered a bump on her head, Galvan a badly bruised eye and Buehlman a scraped thumb in the fight June 20.

Young, 5 feet 11, 130 pounds, is being held without bail on two felony counts of assaulting a police officer, two counts of possession of a lethal weapon--the sap and a knife--and a parole violation. The officers suspected he was under the influence of PCP or methamphetamine, but blood test results have not come back.

Buehlman’s bold move touched the two officers. Johnson said that it isn’t uncommon for people to resist arrest but it is rare for a civilian to jump into a fracas. “I haven’t heard many police officers say they’ve been helped like that,” she said. “We were thankful. Police officers aren’t well-liked people, so when anyone from the street comes to help police officers, when they risk themselves, we really appreciate it.”