Crime
Hundreds gather to remember man fatally shot by Fresno police
Family and friends of the man who was shot by Fresno police on Saturday gathered Sunday night for a vigil at the same east-central Fresno location to remember the 19-year-old.
Hundreds gathered at the Chevron gas station on Shields and Armstrong avenues around 8 p.m. to honor the life of the shooting victim, identified by family as Dylan Noble. Noble died in surgery after he was transported to Community Regional Medical Center.
RELATED: Man says he hates his life, is shot by cops in east-central Fresno
Motorcycles, trucks and dirt bikes filled the gas station parking lot and an empty dirt lot next to it to perform a revving up of engines in a loud remembrance of the victim. Dirt bikes also raced on Shields Avenue, to cheers and claps from those who watched from the sidewalk.
Gail Rowell, grandmother of Noble’s girlfriend, says Noble was at her house trimming trees and helping with a garage sale just hours before she found out he had been gunned down.
“He was headed home, when [police] turned the light on him,” Rowell said. “He pulled over and they shot him.”
Rowell described the officer-involved shooting as “incomprehensible”, as she pointed over to an area of candles and flowers where Noble was given CPR treatment following the shooting; blood stains were still visible.
“That’s his blood right there,” Rowell said.
The shooting occurred after a search for a man with a rifle who was reportedly walking down the street.
Police began looking for the man after a 911 call at 3:20 p.m. Saturday with reports that he was walking on Clovis and Clinton avenues armed with a rifle, Deputy Chief Pat Farmer said. When officers went to the area to search for the man, one noticed a speeding pickup, Deputy Chief Pat Farmer said.
When officers attempted to pull over the truck near Shields and Fowler avenues, the driver continued for more than a half-mile, eventually pulling over at a Chevron station at the corner of Shields and Armstrong avenues.
The driver exited the pickup, began to walk away and was hiding his hands in his waistband area, Farmer said. He turned around suddenly and put one of his hands behind his back.
“Officers continued to plead with the subject to show his hands,” Farmer said. “At that point the subject made a statement that he hated his life and made a movement to the small of his back, at which point he was shot several times by officers on the scene.”
Officers performed CPR before Noble was taken to Community Regional Medical Center, where he died in surgery.
Lou Standifer was Noble’s English 12 high school teacher when the 19-year-old was a freshman and sophomore at Clovis High School. Standifer gathered the hundreds in attendance for a prayer around 8 p.m.
“The kid was my heart,” Standifer said. “Looking around here, that’s obviously a pretty common thing.”
Before a short prayer, Standifer said he felt it is “unfair” to let Noble’s death go by, adding that the community needed to know about “the real Dylan.”
Rowell stated that Noble, who was planning to attend Fresno City College in the fall and soon marry his girlfriend, was “not depressed, not belligerent and not dangerous.”
Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado: 559-441-6304, @cres_guez
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