Santa Ana man allegedly threatens girlfriend: ‘Just a couple of drops of this mercury and you’re dead’

Santa Ana police Tuesday were questioning a man who was accused by his girlfriend of threatening to kill her with mercury, touching off a hazardous materials alert.

The woman called police just before 9 a.m. alleging her boyfriend told her, “Just a couple of drops of this mercury and you’re dead,” said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna.

She ran out of her apartment in the 2500 block of West MacArthur Boulevard, dumped a 25-pound canister of mercury into some bushes and called police, Bertagna said.

The woman, whose name was withheld, said there was another bottle of the chemical at her boyfriend’s home in the 2500 block of Taurus Lane, so police went to that residence and recovered another canister of what officials suspect is mercury, Bertagna said.

The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, “is being cooperative,” Bertagna said.

Both canisters were turned over to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

The Orange County Fire Authority said its hazmat team responded to the apartment on MacArthur Boulevard where the mercury was dumped.