Homeless man ends up dead in officer-involved shooting in southwest Fresno
A homeless man was fatally shot by two Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies Friday night in southwest Fresno.
It remains unclear if the man was armed.
It happened around 5 p.m. at Jamie’s Auto Dismantling near West and Church avenues with deputies receiving a report of a commercial burglary in progress. The business is on the west side of West just outside city limits.
The owner of the auto shop called authorities to report an unknown man inside his office.
The suspect, identified on Saturday as 32-year-old Kenneth Mullins, appeared to be asleep or passed out but had potential access to the business’ firearms inside the building, the business owner told deputies, according to Fresno County Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti.
Upon arriving at the scene, deputies spent about 30 minutes commanding Mullins to exit the building.
After no response from the man, deputies used the SWAT team’s remote controlled robot to gain surveillance inside the building.
“Just as the robot got close to the suspect,” Botti said, “the man picked up the robot and threw it.”
Roughly three minutes later, Mullins exited the building, Botti said.
He confronted a couple of deputies who were positioned along the business’ perimeter.
Deputies command Mullins to stop, Botti added.
Moments later, shots were fired.
“Something happened that caused two of our deputies to fire at this man,” Botti said.
Mullins died at the scene.
“What I can happily say is all of our people are going home safe tonight,” Botti said. “That’s the most important situation here. Our people were put in a very dangerous situation this evening.
“It’s unfortunate things have to end this way. But circumstances dictate action sometimes.”
Botti said no weapons were immediately found on the ground during the deputies’ quick canvassing of the area.
It’s also unclear how many times the man was shot.
The investigation remains ongoing.
Mullins was in jail as recently as February, when his most recent booking photo was taken.
This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 9:14 PM.