A San Diego Police Department officer shot and killed a man Monday morning while officers were responding to a disturbance call at a home in Mountain View.
The shooting happened just before 5 a.m. in front of a home along the 300 block of South Pardee Street, between Franklin and Webster avenues. The neighborhood is east of Interstate 15, near Mount Hope Cemetery.
SDPD Lt. Matt Dobbs said officers received a call about a half-hour earlier from residents of the home who reported a man who was staying there as a guest was acting "paranoid," and had ripped a metal curtain rod from the wall and was breaking windows and other things inside.
SDPD Capt. Richard Freedman, of the department’s Homicide Unit, said a witness also told 911 that the man was threatening people inside the home.
A neighbor had also called 911 to report the commotion, which they described as sounding like someone was being tortured, Lt. Dobbs said.
The call, which was originally a report of vandalism, was upgraded to a report of violence with a weapon.
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When officers arrived, Dobbs said they set up their command post a short distance away from the home so they could call for resources and plan how to safely respond to the call.
A group of three officers then made their way toward the home, and as they approached they could see the man through the window, and could hear him yelling and breaking things, Dobbs said.
Officers gave the man commands in English and Spanish but were given no response.
As they were getting into position to try and negotiate with the man, the man crawled out of a broken window and made his way toward the gate of the property. Then, he ran at officers, curtain rod in hand, according to Dobbs.
One of the officers deployed a stun gun, and another a bean bag round. The third officer fired his handgun, hitting the man at least once, Dobbs said.
The man fell to the ground.
Dobbs said the officers gave the man medical aid and called medics. He was taken to a local hospital where he died a short time later, the captain confirmed.
SDPD has not identified the man, but said he was 39 years old.
No one else was hurt.
Jose Lopez, who live across the street, says he heard glass shatter around 1 a.m. but didn't think anything of it. Then, he heard two shots ring out shortly after he woke up at about 4 a.m.
He walked out his front door to figure out what was going on and saw a man down on the ground. Lopez was concerned that an officer opened fire with a gun.
“I don’t think it should have happened like that. I don’t think shots should have been fired if they already hit him with a bean bag and tasered him," Lopez said. “It would have been different if it was a knife or a gun going after them."
Freedman said the SDPD officer who fired his gun will be placed on administrative leave, per SDPD protocol.
The Homicide Unit will investigate the incident and forward its findings to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI, Freedman said.
The name of the man who was shot and killed by police was not immediately released. Freedman said he was in his late 30s to early 40s. Investigators do not yet know if the man had a history of violence or mental illness, the captain said.
As of 8 a.m., officers had not yet been able to search the home to see if windows had been broken. Freedman said he wasn’t sure how many people were inside the home with the man at the time of the incident, but he did confirm no one else inside was harmed.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
