Simi Doctor Suspected of Weapons Violations

Alerted by an alarmed tipster, Irvine police arrested a Simi Valley psychiatrist Saturday on suspicion of keeping an illegal assault weapon in his car and carrying a pistol to a college class.

Dr. Michael Menaster, who is studying for an MBA at UCI’s Graduate School of Management, was carrying the loaded semiautomatic pistol and also had two 9mm semiautomatic pistols and an AK-47 assault weapon in his car, said police Sgt. Phil Povey.

Police arrested Menaster, 35, without incident near his Toyota Tercel in a parking lot at the Hyatt Regency Irvine, where a course in his MBA program was being conducted.

A UCI employee on the scene who declined to give his name said Menaster has been a student in the school’s health-care services program since January of last year. The two-year program holds classes at the campus and at the hotel, the employee said.

The class, being conducted in the hotel’s Empire ballroom, continued after officers entered and took Menaster out to his car. Students declined to discuss the arrest.

Menaster was booked in Orange County Central Jail and his weapons were seized, Povey said.

“He said he had had threats made on his life,” said Povey, adding that Menaster did not seem to have had any prior troubles with the law.

Menaster told officers he had applied for a concealed-weapon permit in Simi Valley but was denied, Povey said.

Povey said a caller alerted police about Menaster on Saturday morning, but declined to elaborate.

Since the shooting of students in Littleton, Colo., authorities in Orange County and other communities have fielded many panicked calls from citizens afraid the horrific scenes might be repeated in their own backyards.

The department does not keep statistics on weapons-related arrests, but they are not uncommon, another Irvine police official said.

“Unfortunately, too many people have weapons these days,” Povey said.

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Times staff writer David Reyes contributed to this story.