Baines: Assault by friend was mental health crisis, not financial dispute over business

Former Fresno City Councilmember Oliver Baines on Saturday adamantly stressed that he was assaulted at gunpoint by friend and former Fresno police officer Raymond Eddy on Thursday due to a mental health crisis Eddy was suffering, and that it had nothing to do with any financial dealings between the two men.

Baines said that he was “pretty irritated and disgusted” at reports that the assault grew out of a “failed business venture,” as reported by police, or that the dispute involved a marijuana enterprise, as several unidentified sources stated. “Ray and I were very close friends for more than 20 years,” he said.

Fresno police spokesman Rob Beckwith on Saturday did not add to a report of the assault released Thursday except to note that Baines did tell detectives Thursday that he was checking on Eddy’s welfare when it happened.

“Mr. Baines is a victim in this,” Beckwith said. “Our focus is on the crime that occurred.”

Said Baines of the incident, when he said Eddy held him at gunpoint:

“I thought I was going to die.”

Police said the dispute took place in the 300 block of West Nees Avenue about 7:40 p.m., where officers went in regard to a gun disturbance. Arriving officers said the dispute involved Eddy and Baines, and that Eddy held a gun to Baines’ neck and threatened to kill him. Police said cell phone video captured the incident as well as Eddy punching Baines with his fists. Eddie was arrested on felony charges of assault with a firearm, making criminal threats, and driving under the influence, and booked into Fresno County Jail. He was released later Thursday.

Eddy could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Baines, who also heads the Fresno Commission on Police Reform, said the two men have had business dealings in the past, but that relationship had nothing to do with what took place Thursday.

Baines said that about 6 p.m., he and several friends began receiving strange phone calls from Eddy, some hostile. After talking with another friend, Baines drove over to check on Eddy, as he had been encouraged to do by one of the friends. On arriving, he texted at the door, and Eddy, texted back, “I’m going to kill you.”

“That was so unlike Ray,” said Baines.

Baines said Eddy arrived moments later in a car and appeared to have difficulty parking. He had a gun in his hand, but Baines said that he was not concerned, because both men are former police officers. But then, Eddy put the gun to Baines’ neck, and said, “I’m God (expletive).”

Baines said he knew that he had to stay calm.

“You’re my brother,” he told Eddy.

“I kept eye contact, but he just wasn’t home,” said Baines. “He pinned me against a car and put a gun up against my throat.”

Baines said that Eddy struck him “once or twice,” but he managed to get into his car to drive away, but not before Eddy banged on he windshield while pointing the pistol.

“He had me point-blank.”

Baines said that Eddy has been talking strangely for several months, saying that he was God and that he could “go into other people’s minds.”

“I was dismissive. I didn’t realize how far he had gone.”

He said that Eddy has been under great pressure recently, much of it financial.

“I was over there for a welfare check.” he said, adding that reports that there was anything more to the situation is “almost like an effort to vilify us. We have given a lot to the community and that’s offensive. There is no failed business. This is about a guy having a mental health crisis. It’s not drugs and guns.

“My whole neck is bruised (from the gun held by Eddy),“ he said.

“This is not drugs and guns,” Baines repeated, adding he was angry at media reports implying that it was.