Suspect pleads not guilty after knife-wielding approach at Janz home

Surveillance video now gives a clearer and more unsettling picture of the night a knife-wielding man came to Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz’s home. The footage shows a man in gloves approaching the house about 3:30 a.m. with a knife in hand, ringing the doorbell, then moving to the backyard, jumping the fence and banging on the back door while still armed. Janz said his family was inside, including his little girl.

The suspect, Larry Torrez, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to attempted burglary and trespass. A judge set bail at $30,000 and ordered Torrez to stay away from Janz and his family. Fresno County sheriff’s deputies moved in as the suspect appeared, turning a frightening confrontation at a public official’s home into a criminal case now being handled in court.

Janz said the encounter felt like an escalation and said he believed Torrez may have known who he was or had some connection to his work. Prosecutor Victor Lai said Torrez had “a fixation with the Fresno Police Department.” Prosecutors also said Torrez had prior felony convictions and a history of filing lawsuits against the City of Fresno, details that deepen the concern over whether the approach was random or targeted.

The incident lands at a moment when threats against public servants have become harder to dismiss as isolated flare-ups. The Impact Project and the Public Service Alliance found threats against local public servants rose by more than 1,000% between 2015 and 2025, with threats to families of public servants also increasing. In Fresno, that broader pattern now meets a local reality: a city attorney appointed in December 2022, overseeing about 39 attorneys and 190 support staff with an annual budget of roughly $32 million, was confronted at home while his family slept.

Janz previously served as a Fresno County deputy district attorney and later entered higher-profile political contests, including runs for Congress in 2018 and Fresno mayor in 2020. Those roles help explain why the case is being viewed in Fresno not just as a burglary attempt, but as a test of how seriously the city protects officials whose work can draw anger beyond the walls of City Hall.