Times Photographer Is Arrested on the Job

Oxnard police arrested a Los Angeles Times photographer Wednesday as he tried to photograph officers calming a suicidal man.

Photographer Steve Osman, who said an officer shoved him against a wall, was treated at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura for a cut to his left ear and abrasions to his arm. Osman was cited for suspicion of interfering with a police officer.

Police would not identify the despondent 33-year-old man, who surrendered to officers and was taken to a county mental health facility. Evening rush-hour traffic was snarled for about an hour as police closed the bridge that joins Channel Islands Boulevard and Harbor Boulevard.

The incident started at 5:15 p.m., when the man was spotted wandering with a gun near the bridge, which spans the Channel Islands Harbor.

When officers arrived, he fled beneath the bridge and held the gun to his head, saying he wanted to die, according to Oxnard Police Cmdr. Jeff Young.

The incident ended about an hour later when officers subdued the man with pepper spray and a police dog.

According to Osman, 34, who also is a reserve deputy for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, officers detained him as he was taking pictures of the scene from a spot across the harbor several hundred feet away.

Osman said an officer twice asked him to leave the area.

He said he responded by showing them his press credential and asking to see a sergeant to clarify the boundaries of the crime scene.

Osman said he asked twice before Officer Greg Hearst grabbed him by the arm, shoved him against a wall and put him in an arm lock.

He said he had not been standing in any cordoned-off crime area.

He said his camera equipment was later taken to a police car. Later, he learned his film had been partially exposed.

Young said Osman had been given repeated verbal warnings.

“He was in the middle of a serious tactical situation according to the officers there,” Young said. “They felt he was at risk and was distracting them.”

Young said officers routinely search the property of people who are arrested to look for weapons.

“As far as opening a camera or film, I don’t know that we would have reason to do that,” Young said.

Assistant Chief Tom Cady said the department will conduct an investigation into the incident.