Police: In rooftop standoff in Sebastopol, man bites power lines and threatens to jump

Threatening to jump off a Sebastopol rooftop, a Sebastopol man biting and pulling on power lines held off law enforcement officers late Monday night until a negotiator convinced him to climb down, according to Sebastopol police.

Sebastopol officers then arrested Walter Koretsky, 42, after the lengthy standoff. They took him to the Sonoma County Jail, where he was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

During the standoff, officers had PG&E turn off power in the northern Sebastopol neighborhood to keep the man from electrocuting himself, Sebastopol Sgt. Greg DeVore said.

Officers recently have had several calls about Koretsky and had arrested him a few days ago, suspecting he had violated a restraining order filed by his estranged wife, DeVore said. Monday at about 9:40 p.m., she called police to say he had again violated the court order by phoning her, police said. Officers looked for the man but didn’t find him.

About an hour later, the woman called to say he was inside her Viola Court home. DeVore said officers went into the home and tried to take him into custody but he struggled and bolted out an open back door. The man then jumped into a neighbor’s yard and climbed onto a roof of a Patricia Court home.

While on the roof he took off his shirt and shoes and, as officers gathered around the home, he threatened to jump if they came after him.

“He was jumping back and forth between two houses,” the sergeant said, using a shed between the single-story rooftops as a stepping stone.

“To show he was serious, he started biting and hanging on the power lines. We called out PG&E and shut down the power for the whole block,” he said. The power lines are well insulated, he said, but officers didn’t want to take the chance and neighbors from numerous homes were alerted to the middle-of-the-night blackout.

Sheriff’s deputies also responded, and at 11:20 p.m. Sebastopol police requested help from a Sonoma County sheriff’s hostage negotiator. The deputy arrived at 12:30 a.m. and Koretsky was in custody 50 minutes later.

Officers arrested Koretsky on suspicion of violating the restraining order, resisting arrest and keeping the woman from phoning for help by trying to take her cellphone.

Koretsky’s bail was set high because of the repeated recent allegations he had been ignoring the court order, DeVore said.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com or Twitter@rossmannreport.