SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Authorities Wednesday released video footage of the fatal shooting of an assault suspect who rushed toward sheriff's deputies at the end of a standoff at a home in a rural area near Daley Ranch Park, prompting the personnel to open fire on him.
Jonathan Andres Garcia, 22, was mortally wounded when two deputies shot him with their service guns and a third discharged a beanbag shotgun at him in a neighborhood just north of the Escondido city limits shortly before 2 a.m. on April 8, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office. Uniform-mounted cameras worn by deputies captured images of the deadly gunfire.
At the time of his death, Garcia was carrying a broken pair of scissors in one of his pockets -- a bladed tool he is believed to have used several hours earlier to attack a family member, authorities said.
The events that led to the shooting began just after 10 p.m. on April 7, when sheriff's personnel received a report of an assault with deadly weapon at a home in the 11300 block of Reidy Canyon Place, a short distance from where Garcia would be fatally wounded hours later.
Witnesses reported that Garcia had assaulted a relative with scissors, sheriff's officials said. Paramedics took the victim to a hospital for treatment of serious stab wounds, including head, ear and eye injuries.
Deputies searched the area in vain for the suspect and went to his home in the 26800 block of North Broadway. Garcia was not there, but the personnel found him at another house on the same block a short time later.
After deputies evacuated several other people from the residence, they saw Garcia come outside and climb on top of an SUV parked in a front of it, carrying a pair of scissors, according to sheriff's officials.
When one deputy ordered him to surrender, the suspect refused, then got off the vehicle and ran back into the house.
During the ensuing standoff, deputies tried without success to persuade Garcia to come out with his hands empty and raised above his head. During shouted exchanges through a front window, the suspect claimed to have a gun -- at one point saying it was "under my hat" -- and, when asked if he wanted to stab deputies, replied, "Yeah."
Finally, after about 90 minutes, Garcia came outside again, carrying something in his hand, and "began moving toward deputies in an aggressive manner," according to sheriff's officials.
At that point, Deputies Michael Carpenter, Tanya Chacon and Alfredo Robles opened fire on him, discharging more than a dozen rounds. Authorities have not specified which of the three fired live rounds and which had the beanbag shotgun.
The video footage shows Garcia running across a lawn front of the home and collapsing to the ground as the deputies fire on him.
A shard of glass was found near where Garcia fell and was processed as evidence in the case, according to sheriff's officials, who have not disclosed if they believe the suspect was wielding the sharp object as a weapon when he was shot.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office is heading investigations into the deputies' use of lethal force against Garcia under terms of Assembly Bill 1506, a 2020 law that requires the state Department of Justice to investigate law enforcement shootings resulting in the deaths of unarmed people.
It is unclear why Garcia's death falls under the statute, given investigators' assertion that he allegedly had at least one makeshift weapon on his person at the time of the fatal confrontation.
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