Anaheim : Suspect in Barricade Charged on 6 Counts
A 45-year-old Anaheim man who barricaded himself inside his house for nearly 24 hours and traded gunshots with police has been charged with five counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and one count of false imprisonment.
Charges against Frank Benjamin Kovaletz, who has a history of mental illness, were filed Wednesday by the Orange County district attorney’s office.
At 3 p.m. last Sunday, Kovaletz’s father, Frank Kovaletz, apparently summoned police to the family’s home in the 1800 block of Tedmar Avenue. While the father was at the police station, the suspect temporarily kept his mother, Anne Kovaletz, inside the house. Police said he released her without harm at 7:15 p.m. Sunday.
The suspect withstood a barrage of tear gas before police coaxed him out of his home Monday afternoon with a pack of cigarettes. In all, police said, he fired about 24 rounds from a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle. One police officer was injured by flying glass.
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