Fatal San Jose police shooting: Chaotic 5-minute encounter described

SAN JOSE — He was cornered in a carport, sitting inside a stolen Toyota Camry, with three police cars blocking his way out.

Officers called out to him repeatedly, telling him to get out of the car and surrender, but the man instead climbed out of the Camry’s sunroof and stood tall.

According to San Jose police, what followed was an erratic five-minute sequence that ended with the city’s second police shooting of the year. The man jumped onto adjacent car roofs, seemingly looking for another exit path. Then he made his way back to the Camry, jumped back down inside, and started the engine.

He rammed the Camry into one of the patrol vehicles, and when that didn’t clear out enough space, he rammed it again, creating an opening that allowed him to make a right turn and head directly at a police sergeant who until that moment had cover.

The sergeant opened fire. So did two other officers. But it wasn’t soon enough to keep the suspect from barreling forward, hitting the sergeant, knocking him down and dragging him across the asphalt about 10 feet, then pinning him against another vehicle, while the Camry traveled a bit farther before hitting a pole.

The sergeant was taken to the hospital, treated for broken bones and released over the weekend.

Mortally wounded, the driver was rushed to a local hospital, where he died after being hit multiple times by officers’ bullets — the second deadly, officer-involved shooting of the year. The first occurred Feb. 14 involving a suspect who was killed after a violent highway chase where he hijacked a UPS truck and eventually tried to run off while holding a shotgun; a woman accompanying him has been charged with shooting at police during the pursuit.

“After reviewing the evidence,” San Jose police Chief Eddie Garcia said at a news conference Monday, “we’re extremely lucky we didn’t lose an officer.”

The incident began around 12:50 p.m. Saturday after police officers went to an apartment building on Kollmar Drive near Story Road to look for a gray 2011 Toyota Camry reported stolen earlier in the day. Garcia said the officers found the car backed into a carport at the site, which was three miles away from where the car theft was reported.

“This incident is tragic,” Garcia said. “We have a suspect that lost his life, and an officer that is still recovering from injuries.”

The identity of suspect was not publicly released Monday pending formal identification and notification of next of kin. Two people who described themselves as longtime friends of the deceased man said he was in his 20s, had lived in the neighborhood and that his family lives in the Central Valley.

One of the friends, who identified herself only as Nancy, was one of several people who went to the scene shortly after the shooting.

“He was a good friend,” Nancy said. “He wouldn’t do nothing around here, just walk around and say ‘Hi’ to people.”

The other friend, who did not want to be identified and was helping form a memorial of balloons and candles at the site, said the man was a father of young children.

Garcia said the suspect had a lengthy criminal history that included multiple auto theft convictions, and described him as a “validated gang member” with a $75,000 active misdemeanor arrest warrant for alleged theft and weapons crimes.

Garcia said he was given “ample opportunity to surrender,” and that “at one point, it looks like we were about five seconds away from him coming down off the car and surrendering peacefully” before the man got back in the Camry.

“We’re going to look at everything we can when it comes to our training,” Garcia said. “What training in different scenarios will never be able to account for is the desperation of a suspect, of a felon who tries to escape by taking one of my officers’ lives.”

Aside from the sergeant, the other two officers who opened fire Saturday were “fairly new, with a year or two” with SJPD, Garcia said. All three were placed on paid administrative leave. SJPD and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office have launched a shooting investigation monitored by the City Attorney’s Office and the Office of the Independent Police Auditor, all of which are standard protocol after an officer-involved shooting in the county.

Garcia said the fatal encounter was recorded on officers’ body-worn cameras, but any footage would not be released until the D.A.’s office completes its shooting report.

Staff writers Thy Vo and Mark Gomez contributed to this report.

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