Authorities on Friday released video footage of a police shooting in Stockton that killed a young man who allegedly pointed a BB gun at San Diego police.
Kevin Garcia Gonzalez, 20, of San Diego was sitting behind the wheel of a parked car in the 300 block of 31st Street outside a historic church when five officers and a police sergeant opened fire on him three weeks ago.
They discharged more than two dozen rounds, striking the driver’s side of the vehicle.
Detectives later discovered Gonzalez’s weapon, which resembled a real revolver, police said, but turned out to be a pellet gun.
A roadside video surveillance system and body-worn cameras captured images of the shooting and the confrontation that preceded it. The San Diego Police Department posted an edited version of the footage on YouTube.
A motorist pulled up alongside a police sergeant’s cruiser at about 10 a.m. April 4 and reported that a man had flashed a handgun at him in the area roughly 20 minutes earlier. The witness said the suspect had been standing next to a parked Ford Fusion, according to police.
The roadside video captured those images, although a gun cannot be seen, and the arrival of police.
When the sergeant pulled to a stop behind the Fusion a short time later, got out and approached the car with his gun drawn, ordering Gonzalez to show his hands. He allegedly failed to comply, and the sergeant retreated to await backup.
By the time reinforcements arrived, a woman was standing next to the passenger side of the Fusion and officers ordered her to put her hands up, as shown in the body-worn footage. She did so, and the personnel detained her and moved her away from the parked car.
Officers proceeded to spend about 40 minutes trying to persuade Gonzalez to disarm himself and surrender. He refused, according to police, and said in Spanish that he did not want to go to jail again. He added that his daughter was going to be born soon, and told the officers they would have to kill him to get him in custody.
At times, however, he held out one or both hands, empty, from the driver’s-side window of the Fusion.
Police decided to use a pepper-ball shotgun to try to incapacitate the suspect. In the moment before an officer discharged the projectiles, another asked, “What’s he got in his hand?”
The shooting commenced almost immediately after wisps of tear gas can be seen inside the Fusion. Enhanced footage, police contend, shows that Gonzalez ducked when the projectile entered, then sat up and raised the BB gun, prompting gunfire from officers positioned behind a vehicle across the street from the Fusion.
Following the gunshots, officers pulled Gonzalez from the Ford. Paramedics took him to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Those from SDPD who discharged their weapons have been identified as Sergeant Edward Laurendeau, and officers Diego Arellanes, Ruben Berton, Fernando Fernandez, Michael Hagen and Zane Sisneros.
Homicide detectives from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the case as part of a countywide agreement to prevent conflicts of interest in probes of officer-involved shootings.
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