Criminal Charges Filed Against Banning Standoff Suspect

Criminal charges were filed Tuesday against a Banning man who allegedly threatened to kill a neighbor, taunted police and threw items out of his residence before surrendering.

Jeremiah Joseph Gerky, 24, was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday at the Banning courthouse on a felony count of making criminal threats and one misdemeanor count each of exhibiting a deadly weapon and resisting arrest, according to Riverside County court documents.

Gerky remained jailed in Banning as of Tuesday afternoon, in lieu of $5,000 bail, according to online jail records.

Gerky was arrested at about 6:45 p.m. Feb. 21 in the 400 block of N. 41st Street, after a multi-agency effort to bring him in had been underway for several hours.

"Apparently he had threatened a neighbor with a knife," Banning Police Chief Leonard Purvis told Patch.

Four and a half hours before the arrest, someone had reported a man with a knife threatening to kill one of his neighbors on that street, according to the Banning Police Department.

"Continuous demands by officers for Gerky to surrender himself were ignored as he began throwing items, including mirrors and glass items, both in and outside of his residence," a police statement said.

"The tactical unit’s initial attempts to remove Gerky from his residence included verbal demands with a loud speaker and phone calls to his cell phone over an extensive period of time," police said.  "However, Gerky continued to ignore the requests for his surrender."

It was ultimately a tear gas round that brought the man out, surrendering himself to police, officials say.

"Within moments of the gas deployment, Gerky exited his residence through the front door with his hands in the air and surrendered himself to officers without incident," Banning PD said.