Deputy's Call Leads To AMBER Alert Suspect's Surrender

PLACERVILLE (CBS13) -- After ignoring dozens of police calls over the weekend, an AMBER Alert suspect finally decided to answer the phone Monday night, and that led to his arrest outside a Placerville In-N-Out Burger restaurant.

For two days West Sacramento police kept calling Dmitry Gerasimov even though he never answered.

"We placed around 20 to 30 calls throughout the weekend," Lt. Tod Sockman said.

They say he did finally make a call to his wife Monday afternoon and told her: "I have access to a plane. I have every intention of putting kids on a plane and fleeing with the kids and you will never see them again."

Within a half an hour an AMBER Alert was issued for the father and his three children. He'd taken off with them in a black Mercedes sedan after police say he beat his estranged wife in their West Sacramento home and threw his 1-year-old son across the room.

Police say Gerasimov actually didn't have a plane or a plan, driving aimlessly for hours with his kids, and without a clue that police were actually tracking him.

"We were tracking the phone," Sockman said. "We knew that he was up in El Dorado County."

So police gave El Dorado Sheriff's deputies the suspect's phone number, and this time he actually he picked up.

"Apparently it was a very short conversation and she (the deputy) was very persuasive and convinced him," Sockman said.

The deputy convinced Gerasimov to meet at In-N-Out to feed his hungry and tired children -- and to surrender. The deputy, who has been with the department since 2008, worked with a crisis negotiator to get Gerasimov to surrender.

But police say Gerasimov got the warning his time was up well before the call from the deputy.

"He knew that we were looking for him," Sockman said. "He saw the AMBER Alert and he realized you know, 'I need to end this.'"
The children were reunited with their mother in West Sacramento.