DISCOVERY BAY — Neighbors from around this placid body of saltwater have formed Discovery Bay Alliance to fight the gunfire and explosions coming from a homeland security training center.
Gabe Ornelas, a Discovery Road resident and spokesman for the group formed last week, informed Jefferson County commissioners on Monday of the group’s intentions to halt Security Services Northwest’s Fort Discovery Training Center counterassault team and counterterrorism training activities.
The center’s training includes high-powered rifle target practice as well as bomb-squad training for such agencies as the Seattle Police Department.
“This committee is very committed and we’re going to fight very vigorously,” said Ornelas, a retired Los Angeles Police Department law officer who served on that department’s first special weapons and tactical — or SWAT — team established in the late 1960s and the first in the world.
Repeated sounds
As a Discovery Bay retiree, Ornelas is angered by the repeated sounds of semiautomatic gunfire reverberating from the center, he told the county commissioners.
A group of about 30 Discovery Bay neighbors from Gardiner to Ocean Groves met last week to form the group that Ornelas says will represent “hundreds of residents” disturbed by the gunfire and explosions.
Fort Discovery, led by Security Services Northwest president Joe D’Amico, is also used by Department of Defense personnel for special weapons training.
