{"id":442809,"date":"2026-08-25T07:10:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T07:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442809\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T07:10:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T07:10:34","slug":"city-attorney-updates-concealed-weapons-policy-no-more-sitting-ducks-in-fresno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442809\/","title":{"rendered":"City Attorney updates concealed weapons policy. No more \u2018sitting ducks\u2019 in Fresno"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz said Monday he is authorizing his prosecutors and investigators who hold a valid concealed weapon license to carry a firearm to better protect themselves against potential attackers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Janz announced the new rule just days after one of his former colleagues in the Fresno County District Attorney&#8217;s office was <a data-ylk=\"slk:stabbed in Courthouse Park on Thursday;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article316956345.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">stabbed in Courthouse Park on Thursday<\/a>. The prosecutor, a senior deputy district attorney, was treated at Community Regional Medical Center and released the next day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The attacker, <a data-ylk=\"slk:Dustin Crawford, 42, of Fresno, was arrested;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article316966290.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Dustin Crawford, 42, of Fresno, was arrested<\/a> and faces charges of attempted murder and attempted murder of a public official.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The charges are enhanced with special allegations that the crimes caused great bodily injury and that Crawford possesses prior criminal convictions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday. He remains in the Fresno County Jail on a $1 million bond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">If convicted of all charges, Crawford faces life in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Janz said chief deputy city attorney Ashley Paulson was nearby filming a campaign commercial when the prosecutor was stabbed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The victim was there to support her,&#8221; Janz said. &#8220;None of them were armed. None of them were carrying weapons. None of them had security, and this was just right outside of the courthouse.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Janz added that it is well known within the criminal community that prosecutors, whether with the district attorney&#8217;s office or the city attorney&#8217;s office, are unarmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We are sitting ducks in Courthouse Park,&#8221; Janz said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Last week, District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and Sheriff John Zanoni also called for stronger protections for county employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Zanoni said he and others are working on a county ordinance that makes it possible for county employees to carry a concealed weapon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Janz is hopeful city and county officials will be successful this time, as previous attempts have failed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When asked how many of his prosecutors are currently licensed to carry a concealed weapon, Janz declined to answer: &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to help criminals be tipped off.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz said Monday he is authorizing his prosecutors and investigators who hold a valid&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[46100,1701,162859,175412,141258,174365,112,4071,114,113,20432],"class_list":["post-442809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-andrew-janz","tag-community-regional-medical-center","tag-concealed-weapon","tag-concealed-weapon-license","tag-courthouse-park","tag-dustin-crawford","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-county-jail","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-prosecutors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}