Incident Involving Bear Spray At Calaveras Fair Leads To Arrest

CCSO booking photo

Angels Camp, Ca– On May 22nd close to noon, Deputies arrived at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds to provide security at the County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee. Calaveras County Bike Team Deputies were advised of an altercation that took place involving a vehicle accident at the South Entrance to the fairgrounds and the deputies rushed to the location to provide assistance and start an investigation.

The deputies arrived and began to collect witness statements and were pointed to the direction of a suspect, identified as Bryan Keith Cognetti, age 48, a resident of Sonora. According to witnesses on the scene, the suspect was responsible for causing the accident due to reckless driving. The South Entrance of the fairgrounds has two lanes that lead to parking attendants. The suspect was upset that his lane was not moving as fast as the other and began to yell at a vehicle that passed in the lane next to him. While continuing to yell at the vehicle, he allowed his own vehicle to collide with a vehicle directly in front of him. The suspect then exited his vehicle and ran to the vehicle that passed him in the other lane. He went on to punch the vehicle before returning to his own where the owner of the vehicle he hit was attempting to gather information. The suspect refused and initiated a verbal argument

As the argument continued, the suspect retrieved a canister of bear spray and a knife from his own vehicle and sprayed a group of people that had gathered near him while brandishing his knife. Three children and four adults were affected by the spray and had to be transported via an ambulance to an emergency room for treatment.

Bran Keith Cognetti was placed under arrest and taken to Calaveras County Jail. He was charged with 4 counts of assault with a deadly weapon, 3 counts of child abuse with significant injury, assault using bear spray, 7 counts of exhibiting a deadly weapon in a threatening manner, and vandalism. He is being held with a bail of 1,375,000.00.