Officers shoot, kill man who fired gun outside of Stockton Police Department
By Erin Heft
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STOCKTON, California (KCRA) — A man was killed by police after firing a gun outside the Stockton Police Department on Wednesday evening, officials said.
The shooting started at 8:30 p.m. at the parking lot of the department along 22 East Market Street, police said.
The man parked his vehicle down the street, removed his shirt before walking toward the department while firing a handgun wildly into the air and near cars in the department’s lot, police said.
Stockton police said people in the parking lot began calling 911.
Police said that after the man began firing the handgun, six officers came outside the building. The man then threw himself on the ground and was acting erratic and violent, according to Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones.
“Suddenly the man stood up quickly and charged, almost as if at a sprint, right towards the officers with his weapon pointed at the officers,” Jones said.
Five of the six officers opened fire at the man. The man died at the scene. No officers were injured, police said.
No motive has been identified at this point, though Jones did say, “there’s certainly a possibility here that it is what’s known as death by suicide by law enforcement. That’s certainly a possibility, a strong possibility.”
The crime scene was active for over 12 hours. Police told KCRA 3 it was better to investigate the scene in the daylight.
Stockton police could confirm the man is believed to be local, but have not yet identified his name and age, pending notification of his next of kin. They confirmed the handgun had a single bullet left when the man charged at the officers.
The multi-agency investigation is ongoing.
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