Cop Rushes at Man with Gun, Thwarts Robbery

When a Watsonville police motorcycle officer saw a man holding another man at gunpoint on a slough trail Sunday, the cop ran down down the path, raised his service weapon and stopped the robbery, Watsonville police reported.

Officer Jason Koehler was one of of several police officers responding to a report of a man brandishing a gun on the trail behind Montebello Drive, near Clifford Avenue, according to Sgt. Saul Gonzalez.

Koehler, who rides a police motorcycle, was the first cop at the scene. He spotted the man with the gun and watched as he held it to the would-be robbery victim's chest. Koehler, who the gunman hadn't seen, rushed toward the holdup and drew his own gun, Gonzalez said.

"It appeared to the officer that the man was being robbed," Gonzalez said.

The officer was able to stop the robbery and disarm the gunman. The weapon turned out to be a replica firearm, Gonzalez said.

No shots were fired and no one was hurt.

The man with the gun, 30-year-old Oscar Franco, was arrested on a weapons charge.