[UPDATED] Brinda Sue McCoy in Deep Doodoo and Lucky to Be Alive: Wife of Oceanside Police Chief and Former Cypress Mayor Accused of Shooting at Cops

​

UPDATE, JAN. 31, 4:47 P.M.: Don't know how we missed this one last week, but 47-year-old Brinda Sue McCoy pleaded not guilty in a Santa Ana courtroom Wednesday to firing one of her husband's guns at police officers who were trying to talk her out of suicide during a three-hour standoff in the couple's Cypress home. After McCoy entered her plea, Orange County Superior Court Judge Erick L. Larsh
ordered all firearms be removed from the home, even the one her husband takes to work.

See, Frank McCoy is Oceanside's police chief.
]

North County Times has the scoop.

McCoy, who is up on five felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer
and three more of discharging a firearm with gross negligence, was also prevented by the judge from practicing her profession as a registered nurse until she completes a mental-health evaluation.

Frank McCoy, Oceanside's police chief, Long Beach's former commander and Cypress' onetime mayor.

​

Her Facebook page indicates she worked at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, the Times reports. Besides his long police career, Frank McCoy is also a former Cypress mayor and city councilman.

If convicted, the mother of his five children could get up to 58 years in state prison.

Court documents show McCoy may have been trying to get Cypress cops to kill her the evening of Dec. 16, 2010, the Times reports. During her initial 9-1-1 call, she demanded that police come over because she wanted to be “taken out of her misery.” Officers arrived to find her facing them in the front window of her home while holding her husband's semiautomatic Sig Sauer .45-caliber handgun to her head. As officers pleaded with her to surrender, she paced inside the home between the window and the front door, at times pointing the gun at her head and, at other times, at officers.

She eventually fired a shot at a Long Beach Police Department truck in her driveway that officers had taken cover behind, reports the Times, which notes her son is a Long Beach officer and her husband was a commander there before coming to Oceanside.

Officers fearing for their lives retreated to find better cover, and McCoy is accused of later firing a second round that struck a Toyota Prius, shattering its front passenger window.

Hours after it began, the standoff ended when the woman stepped outside, and SWAT officers shot her in the chest with a beanbag shotgun. She was immediately arrested, then taken to a local hospital for evaluation before being moved to a psychiatric hospital.

The order to remove all guns from the McCoy home came over the objections of defense attorney David Diamond, according to the Times. They are next due in court March 18 for a pretrial hearing.

One often hears about guns stolen from gun owners eventually being used against cops. Whoever imagined a cop's gun would be used against them? By a cop's wife?

Allegedly.

​

ORIGINAL POST, DEC. 23, 2010, 9:33 A.M.: 47-year-old Brinda Sue McCoy is looking at a possible sentence of 58 years in prison if convicted of the charges against her, but based on the description of the incident that led to her Dec. 16 arrest, the 47-year-old Cypress resident is lucky to be alive.

She allegedly pointed a semi-automatic firearm at officers who responded to her 9-1-1 call for help–and then fired at them. Twice!

The Orange County district attorney's office's statement on the charges against McCoy follow . . .

December 22, 2010

WOMAN FACES CHARGES FOR SHOOTING AT POLICE OFFICERS AFTER CALLING 911 FOR HELP AND INITIATING STAND-OFF

SANTA ANA – A woman was charged today for shooting at responding police
officers after calling 911 and initiating stand-off. Brinda Sue McCoy,
47, Cypress, is charged with five felony counts of assault with a
semi-automatic firearm on a peace officer and two felony counts of
discharging a firearm with gross negligence with sentencing enhancements
for the personal discharge of a firearm. If convicted, she faces a
maximum sentence of 58 years in state prison. The defendant is being
held on $250,000. McCoy's arraignment date and time are to be
determined.  

At approximately 7:00 p.m. on Dec. 16, 2010, McCoy is accused of calling
911 and stating she needed assistance. Responding Cypress Police
Department officers attempted to get McCoy to come out of her residence.
McCoy is accused of refusing to leave her house, pointing a firearm at
her head, and then at the ceiling before pointing it directly at
officers outside. Police warned the defendant that if she fired her
weapon, she would harm police officers. McCoy is accused of firing the
gun twice at police officers who were stationed behind two parked
vehicles outside the defendant's home. SWAT stopped McCoy using a bean
bag gun.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Olivieri of the Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting this case.