Bruised Officers Recovering From Barbell Attack

Four Garden Grove police officers injured by a man who hit them with metal barbell plates were in good condition Thursday, authorities said.

The officers, whose names were not released, were treated at the scene by paramedics and at a hospital for bruises and lacerations. Three were released shortly after the Wednesday night confrontation; the fourth was held for overnight observation.

Robert Edward Curry, 26, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon on his mother, Garden Grove Police Lt. John Woods said.

He is being held in Orange County Jail on $25,000 bail and is set to be arraigned today in the Justice Center in Westminster.

On Wednesday, officers responded to a 5:09 p.m. call made from a market at Brookhurst Street and Hazard Avenue. The caller said she was attacked and choked by her adult son when she refused to let him borrow her car, Woods said.

“She was able to get away and get to the market,” Woods said.

Police went to the family’s apartment on Hazard Avenue to check up on Curry, the woman’s son. When two officers approached him at the front door, he attacked them with a metal weight-lifting plate, Woods said.

The officers used pepper spray in efforts to subdue Curry, but it had no effect, and he shuttered himself in his apartment, Woods said. Backup units were called, and officers tried to persuade Curry to come outside, but he refused.

A police dog and his handler, along with an officer carrying a beanbag shotgun, entered the apartment, Woods said. When Curry attacked the dog with the metal plates, the second officer shot Curry four times with nonlethal beanbags, Woods said, but Curry didn’t fall.

“It surprised us,” Woods said, adding that the beanbags typically bring down suspects.

Woods said several officers surrounded Curry, who hit them with the barbell plates before they finally controlled and arrested him.

Curry was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was treated for dog bites, beanbag injuries and the effects of pepper spray, officials said. After Curry was released, he was booked into Orange County Jail.

The police dog was not seriously hurt.

Woods said police have had contact with Curry before because of allegations that he had threatened to kill family members and had assaulted some of them.