Fresno police officer shoots armed carjacking suspect

A Fresno police officer shot a suspected carjacker early Saturday morning after a short chase west of Highway 99.

Lt. Joe Gomez said the 17-year-old suspect was listed in critical but stable condition at a Fresno hospital. The officer was not injured.

Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer said the incident started shortly before 2 a.m. at the Johnny Quik convenience store at Clinton and Blythe avenues when the teen pulled a handgun on a 36-year-old woman as she left the store. The teen had his shirt pulled partially over his face and told the woman, “If you want to live, you better give me your keys.” She complied and he drove away in her 2002 Suburban.

At 2:37 a.m., an officer spotted the Suburban from a distance in the area of Cornell Avenue and Blythe, a few blocks north of the Johnny Quik, Dyer said. As the officer attempted to catch up, the teen sped away eastbound on Cornell. As the teen attempted to turn southbound on Brunswick Avenue he crashed into a van parked in a driveway. The officer pulled up behind him and got out of his patrol car. The teen jumped out of the Suburban armed with the handgun and the officer confronted him, firing two shots.

The teen fell to the ground with the handgun next to him. The handgun had one expended round and the hammer was cocked. It is not known if, or when, the handgun was fired.

Several residents said they were sure that three shots were fired during the exchange.

The final confrontation happened in the yard of Jennifer De Los Santos’ home. Around 11 a.m. Saturday, her husband, Raymond, was washing the teen’s blood off the family’s brown, drought-stricken lawn and a wooden fence shared with a neighbor.

“My dogs were going crazy after he hit my husband’s brand new van,” she said. The van, a black Ford Transit, is a company vehicle Raymond picked up Thursday.

De Los Santos and her husband stayed indoors during the altercation with their 11-year-old son and 18-year-old niece. They each heard three shots, she said, followed by the suspect’s screams.

“He kept yelling ‘it hurts so much’ and ‘tell my mom I love her.’ The cops were trying to walk up to him, but he wouldn’t keep his hands up. They kept yelling for him to throw his gun and keep his hands up, but he kept putting them down.”

De Los Santos said police would not let her family leave their home until around 10:30 a.m., when investigators finished collecting evidence and took down their yellow caution tape.

Linda Miller, who lives nearby at the corner of Amherst and Brunswick avenues, said she also distinctly heard three shots after the crash.

Vicky Serios, De Los Santos’ next-door neighbor, said one of the bullets severed her Pacific Gas & Electric Co. gas line. PG&E arrived shortly after to shut off the gas, but the company had not sent someone to fix the leak as of 11 a.m., she said.

Each resident said the incident made them feel less safe in their homes. They said that this is the third major crash at the corner of Cornell and Brunswick in the last few years. They believe speed bumps placed before the curve would make the intersection safer.

“People just think this is a racetrack,” Miller said.

Prior to releasing his statement, Dyer came to the shooting scene and discussed the case with investigators. He said the officer, who has not been named, will be placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the initial investigation.

It’s the fifth officer-involved shooting this year in Fresno and the second this week following an incident Thursday in southeast Fresno. Freddy Centeno, 40, of Fresno, was shot several times by officers after he reached for a black hose sprayer that police say looked like a handgun. He is also listed in critical condition.

Dyer said investigators are reviewing video from the Johnny Quik but not making it public yet. The officer had not yet been issued a body camera.

Dyer said just before noon that the teen was positively identified by the carjacking victim and confessed to the crime.

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 8:26 AM with the headline "Fresno police officer shoots armed carjacking suspect."