Deputies shoot knife-wielding Petaluma man with foam-tip bullet

The Petaluma man’s father called for help, saying his son was threatening family with a knife, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.|

Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies Tuesday disarmed a Petaluma man, shooting him with a foam-tipped bullet after he threatened his family and himself with a knife, authorities said Wednesday.

Omar Saldana Campos, 22, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, making criminal threats and resisting arrest.

Campos’ father called deputies to the Casa Grande Road home about 4:30 p.m. saying his son had attempted to stab his mother with a folding knife, sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said in a news release. The father also told deputies his son had taken drugs and was seeing and hearing things.

Deputies found Campos outside his home, unwilling to comply with deputies who attempted to defuse the situation, including speaking calmly to him in Spanish, Crum said.

At one point the man held the knife to his throat and grew increasingly agitated, screaming and swearing at deputies. When Campos began to walk toward deputies, with the 3-inch blade still at his neck, a deputy fired a foam-tipped projectile from a 40-caliber “launcher,” hitting the man in the stomach with the “less-lethal” round, which leaves a bruise, Crum said.

The man fell to the ground, dropped the knife and was arrested. He was taken to a hospital for a medical check then booked into the Sonoma County Jail. Bail was set at $30,000.

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