The Oakley Police Department announced the arrest of Andrew McWirther, 36 of Bethel Island, after a pursuit on Sunday.
On February 23, 2025 at approximately 3:00AM, Oakley police officers saw a suspicious vehicle driving slowly through the Emerson Ranch neighborhood. At this time of the day this was suspicious behavior so our officers began following the vehicle.
The Gray 2003 Toyota Highlander began to accelerate at a high rate of speed and our officers turned on their emergency lights to perform a traffic stop. The vehicle continued to flee and a pursuit was started. The suspect seemingly became lost because he began taking multiple turns into the Almondtree Lane neighborhood.
The suspect turned into courts apparently believing they were through roads. The suspect would then take tight turns out of those courts requiring our officers to evade the suspect’s vehicle to avoid collisions. The officers continued their pursuit of the suspect onto Main Street towards Brownstone Road. It was learned the vehicle was registered to Andrew McWirther (36, Bethel Island). Delta Station deputies of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office advised, via radio, they have had physical altercations with McWirther twice in the past week.
McWirther turned onto Anderson Lane and then went into the Atherton Boulevard neighborhood in Brentwood before driving into another court, driving over a wrought iron fence, and getting stuck on a berm. He took off on foot towards Freedom High School and fell down into the flooded basin, where the soccer fields are. McWirther stayed on a small dry patch of land in the middle of the water while officers surrounded him and began negotiating for him to peacefully come to them. He refused to do so and instead made furtive gestures and told the officers he had a gun in his pocket and they were going to have to shoot him because he was going to shoot at the officers.
Officers continued negotiating with McWirther for approximately 20 minutes. McWirther then removed a small flashlight from his pocket in what appeared to be an attempt to precipitate a shooting.
McWirther was advised a police K9 was 30 seconds from arriving and he should give up. He tried running again toward O’Hara Avenue through the water and up a berm. Officers were able to tackle him and McWirther physically resisted the efforts of our officers and fought against them. Physical force was applied to McWirther and he was then taken into custody. A search of McWhirter’s vehicle revealed two 9MM starter pistols and blank ammunition for the pistols. McWhirter was transported to Sutter Delta Hospital for treatment prior to being booked into jail.
McWirther was booked for felony evading, physically resisting officers and for crimes related to the starter pistols and the blank ammunition.
We would like to thank the Brentwood Police Department and the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office for assisting us during this incident.
Information released by Oakley Police Department