Police arrested a man on Monday morning after he was allegedly seen entering a Tesla repair shop in Berkeley while naked and armed with a shotgun, officials said. Edward Teece, 35, was arrested on several charges, including assault with firearm, carrying a loaded firearm in public and willfully discharging a firearm in a negligent manner, Berkeley police officer Byron White told SFGATE in an email. The arrest was first reported by the Berkeley Scanner.
The Berkeley Police Department began receiving calls at 7:17 a.m. on Monday regarding a naked man, later identified as Teece, in the area of Gilman and Eighth streets in northwest Berkeley, White said. Teece was reportedly smashing windows and carrying a large object. Callers then reported that he had entered the Tesla Service Center at 901 Gilman St. and was holding a shotgun.
As police officers began to surround the service center, Teece “came running out of the front of the building carrying the shotgun and screaming,” White said. He then allegedly ran toward an officer, ignoring commands by law enforcement to stop. An officer took cover behind a pillar before tackling Teece to the ground, at which point other officers restrained him and placed him in handcuffs, White said.
Officers took the shotgun as evidence before obtaining a search warrant for his nearby warehouse property. Once inside the property, officers found evidence that Teece had fired the shotgun inside the warehouse multiple times, White said.
Teece appears in a Yale University rowing roster, which states that his hometown is Berkeley and that he rowed for the university’s lightweight crew from 2009 to 2010. Teece’s LinkedIn profile lists him as the founder of several investment startups and shows that he graduated from Yale in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies.
“We are thankful that no one was injured and we are grateful for all the people who called to report the suspect’s location so that officers could quickly take the man into custody,” White said.