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The man accused of driving a semitractor-trailer onto a ramp at Sacramento’s federal courthouse Thursday — and who apparently livestreamed the event on Facebook — has been charged with obstruction of federal property and improper use of a vehicle on federal property.
Patrick Blackshire, 40, was charged with the two misdemeanor courts — which could result in 30-day jail sentences and fines of $5,000 — after the FBI said the man parked a big-rig on a ramp at the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse at Sixth and I streets about 4:40 a.m.
The man initially refused to move the truck when contacted by federal officers and, around 7 a.m., moved it onto Fifth Street adjacent to Amtrak’s Sacramento Valley Station, where it sat parked for hours Thursday morning as authorities cordoned off the area.
The man finally exited the vehicle at 9 a.m. after a crisis negotiation team was brought in, and he was taken into custody, the FBI said.
The incident, which blocked off several downtown blocks and temporarily halted Regional Transit rail and bus traffic, took place as thousands of residents and tourists were walking through the area on the way to the Golden 1 Center for the start of the NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament.
The FBI did not name the driver, but documents filed in federal court in advance of an arraignment Friday morning listed the two misdemeanor counts under Blackshire’s name.
Blackshire is a plaintiff in 20 lawsuits filed in Sacramento federal court against agencies ranging from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and RT.
“Nineteen cases filed in federal court and they were all closed,” Blackshire said in his Facebook video, apparently taken from inside the cab of the truck while he sat wearing a white shirt and blue- and yellow-striped tie, as well as a hard hat.
“I’m at the federal building and I want to talk to the mayor, to the congressmen, to governor and even the president, too,” he said as the rumbling of the truck’s engine could be heard in the background. “I want to talk to the CIA, to the FBI, to the Hague, to the world’s courts, to the Pope and the Vatican.
“I need the world to understand, I am not about to harm myself — I do not want to harm anyone.”
Blackshire complained he was left “for months” in a jail cell without the door being opened and said at one point “they deemed me insane and things like that.”
“It ain’t right,” he said.
One of his lawsuits, filed in 2016 against the Napa State Hospital, claimed violation of his constitutional rights and medical malpractice and sought $33 million in damages.
“I was treated with excessive medication by unwarranted force…,” his handwritten complaint said.
In the 10-minute video, Blackshire complained that he had been found incompetent to stand trial in the past.
As he recorded video out the windshield of the truck toward police units on I Street, Blackshire expressed his apparent desire to meet with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
“Get the mayor,” he said. “Where the mayor at?”
