Friday evening, members of the coroner’s office wheeled away the body of a 46 year old man. A man whom investigators say may have wanted cops to kill him.
Earlier in the afternoon, the suspect was standing in front of a house on N St. when he used a cell phone to dial 911. The dispatcher says he was obviously suicidal.
“There were statements made by him about him being armed,” said Chris Curtice of the Fresno Co. Sheriff’s Dept.
When officers responded, they tried confronting the man, but he took off running down an alley.
“The subject was hiding in some bushes. There were repeated commands by the officers to the subject, which he ignored and at some point a shooting did take place by the officers,” said Curtice.
A yellow tarp lying in a car wash parking lot marks the spot where the man died. John North, who had just left the nearby Chuck Wagon restaurant, found himself unknowingly driving into the situation as it was playing out.
“Soon as I made a left I saw about six officers pointing their guns and the next thing I knew I heard 30 shots ring out. I immediately made a U-turn to get back behind the Chuck Wagon to get out of the crossfire,” said John North, a witness.
To be objective, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department is handling the investigation. They tell CBS47 that three Sanger officers fired multiple rounds. Investigators will not say how many times the suspect was hit or whether they found a gun on him.
Sanger Police Chief Silver Rodriguez just took the city’s top position last week after leaving Porterville’s department. He stands behind his officers who were forced to make a very difficult, split second decision.
“It seems like things are getting tougher and tougher these days. As they try and protect the community there’s a certain segment out there that makes it harder and harder and are willing to take them on,” said Silver Rodriguez, Chief of Sanger Police.
There was an officer involved shooting in sanger this past march, but Fresno Police were the ones who fired. The last one to involve Sanger Police was 3 years ago.