The day after a man was fatally shot by San Diego police, the county sheriff's department, the agency investigating the case, revealed several new details connected to the incident, including the identity of the man who later died at the hospital.
Investigators said on Wednesday morning that the man was Scholar Wang, 48, who was shot in a home in the 1500 block of Bridgeview Drive in the Fairmount Park neighborhood on Tuesday after he allegedly attacked his two aunts with a piece of wood, possibly the leg of a chair.
On Tuesday, the sheriff's department had first called the weapon a machete, then modified that description to some sort of metal object.
Officers initially became aware of the situation when, shortly after 8 a.m., they received a radio call about an assault with a deadly weapon at the home, Lt. Chris Steffen with the San Diego Sheriff's homicide unit said on Tuesday.
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When officers arrived, they were met by two female victims, aged 73 and 79, who were identified by Steffen as family members. One of the women had a cut on her head, while the other had a laceration on her neck, Steffen said in a news conference outside the home at about 12:30. Both women were hospitalized after the attack.
Shortly afterward, officers made contact with Wang, who had barricaded himself in a bathroom. The officers directed pepper spray into the bathroom in an effort to get him to come out, Steffen said.
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When negotiations failed, officers sent in a canine unit. The dog was struck with a sharp object, described on Wednesday by Steffen in an email as a two-foot by two-inch piece of sharp ridged metal. Steffen said Wang then "lunged at the officer."
"In a response to that, the officers ended up ultimately shooting the suspect," Steffen said. "One officer shot one round and the suspect went down."
No officers were injured in the incident, Steffen said. The dog was taken for treatment of a "superficial cut above one of its eyes," as Steffen described it on Wednesday.
Steffen said investigators are still looking into what precipitated the events on Tuesday.
Neighbors say Wang had a history of mental illness and that police have been called to the home for disturbances over the years.
"It's too soon to tell if mental health is an issue in this case," Steffen said on Tuesday.
In April of this year, officials announced that law enforcement agencies in San Diego County had signed a memorandum that would change the way investigations of deadly law-enforcement-involved shootings are handled. The memorandum of understanding ensures that no law enforcement agency in the county is investigating their own officers when they are involved in deadly shootings, which was previously the practice.
Under the memorandum, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department will investigate all SDPD use of force incidents involving death. The San Diego Police Department will investigate the sheriff’s office and all other agencies. The Chula Vista Police Department will investigate incidents that involve both SDPD and Sheriff’s Department.
The DA's office will continue to review all incidents, and a DA investigator will be dispatched to the scene of all shootings to gather information as the investigation into the deadly shooting is ongoing.
