Local Dispensary Owner Helps EPD Officer During Arrest

Recent footage of a dramatic arrest was sent to Redwood News by a local dispensary owner who offered a helping hand at the scene.

It started off as any normal morning for Roy Gomez, the owner of the Heart of the Emerald dispensary. It wasn’t until Gomez started walking back to his dispensary after getting himself a cup of coffee, that he noticed an EPD officer in need of some help. 

“It was a Sunday morning around 9 a.m., and I was just at the Co-Op walking back with some coffee and I noticed that there’s a police officer across the street trying to arrest an individual down on the ground,” Gomez said. “The officer had his knee on the guy’s back and was struggling, trying to get him to give him his other hand so that he could cuff his other hand and I started to film with my phone from that point on.”

Gomez made a quick decision to assist the struggling officer, detaining the individual before backup even arrived. 

“The officer asked for help, he said ‘help me’ so that was my cue to get down and help him,” Gomez said. 

Gomez is an active member of the community, when he saw a chance to provide some help, he gladly took the opportunity to do so.

“I’ve been in the community for almost my whole life, you know, I respect Eureka and the Eureka Police Department,” Gomez said. “I wanted to make sure that they knew as a good samaritan that I’m here for them.” 

His business the “Heart of the Emerald” is a community-based dispensary, continuing to support local cannabis growth and products within the Humboldt region. 

“We specialize in stocking and promoting products from our region; we just opened another shop in Arcata as well,” Gomez said. “We specialize in promoting our region as a whole, not just products from our region, but cannabis from our region and kind of tourism as well.”