A San Diego police officer who killed an armed burglar inside a Point Loma home on Sunday has fatally shot three other men in the past four years.

Officer Richard Butera shot Kyle Zahacefski, 24, of Connecticut, who threatened officers by advancing on them with a knife, a homicide investigator said.

Butera fired his AR-15 rifle and a second officer fired a beanbag round, Lt. Mike Holden said Tuesday. He declined to release the name of the second officer.

Holden said police got a call about 6 a.m. that a man was trying to break into a home on Trieste Drive. When officers got there, a man in the front yard threw bricks at them, then broke into a different house.


Officers followed him inside and found him in the kitchen. Holden said Zahacefski found a knife and “quickly walked toward them.” He said Butera and the other officer feared for their safety and fired their respective weapons.

In one of the past shootings, Butera killed Joshua Adam Sisson on Jan. 1, 2016, after he began to “aggressively advance” toward the officer with a knife at a Lewis Street home in Hillcrest, police said. Sisson was accused of first holding a knife to his boyfriend’s throat.

On Jan. 26, 2014, Butera shot and killed Aaron Devenere, who had claimed to have explosives while holding a driver hostage. After the truck was stopped, Butera, following orders, shot Devenere in the head with a rifle as Devenere twisted the woman’s head while she screamed and struggled.

On June 1, 2013, Butera fatally shot Giacomo James Cargnoni, 21, who was accused of holding a gun to another man’s head. Police said the suspect, crouching behind a car door on Sea World Drive, appeared to be pointing a weapon at officers when Butera felled him with two shotgun blasts. Officers said Cargnoni was holding a folding knife with a 3-inch blade.


The District Attorney’s Office found all three shootings justified.


pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepard