Redding man arrested for smashing bar’s window with pipe, threatening to murder employee

Officers in Northern California arrested a man believed to be wielding a sword but was instead found smashing a window with a bent metal pipe near a mall food court entrance, police said.

Cameron Willits, 25, of Redding was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, making criminal threats and vandalism, the Redding Police Department announced Wednesday in a news release.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, officers were called to the Rusty Nail Lounge at 900 Dana Drive in the Mt. Shasta Mall in Redding. Police said the officers were responding to a report of person armed with a sword trying to enter the bar, hitting the windows with the weapon and threatening to kill someone.

Authorities said Willits eventually made it inside the business with what an employee believed was a sword in his hand, and he was then asked to leave.

“Willits responded by raising the weapon towards the victim, pointed it at him and stated he was there to murder him,” police officials wrote in the news release. “The victim calmly told Willits he needed to leave and asked him not to murder anyone.”

Willits backed out of the business, and others closed and locked the bar’s front door, police said.

Several officers arrived and found Willits “violent, armed and highly agitated” in front of the mall food court entrance where he was smashing a window with an object that was later determined to be a bent metal pipe, according to the police department.

Before approaching Willits, the officers prepared less-than-lethal tactics, including using a police K9 dog, in an effort to de-escalate the encounter and reduce the need for deadly force. Police said the officers convinced Willits to drop the pipe and surrender without further incident.