Deputies fatally shoot man in Vista

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Friday, July 29, 2005 11:02 PM PDT ∞

VISTA ---- Deputies fatally shot a man who allegedly hurled a dumbbell at them Thursday night after pepper spray failed to stop him as he charged them, authorities said Friday.

The names of the 25-year-old man and the deputies were not released as the investigation continued into the shooting in a duplex in the 800 block of North Citrus Avenue. The man's name was still being confirmed, said sheriff's homicide Lt. Tom Bennett.

Bennett said deputies were called twice to the home within 24 hours before a roommate called for help, saying the man was acting in a bizarre manner, had grabbed her and was making irrational statements.

"He was telling her that she (and her husband) had locked up his wife in a closet," Bennett said. "She couldn't convince him that they had not."

The fatal shooting is one of six deputy-involved shootings in San Diego County this year. There were five deputy-involved shootings last year and 10 in 2003. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department couldn't immediately say how many have been fatal.

Deputies are authorized to use lethal force anytime they believe they or someone else is in "imminent risk" of great bodily injury or death, said Capt. Glenn Revell, spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.

They have less lethal weapons on them, including batons, saps and pepper spray, Revell said. He said K-9 dogs are sometimes available and a pepper ball gun or one that fires a compact plastic bean bag is in each patrol car.

Retreating or leaving a volatile scene is also an option, but not if it leaves someone else at risk, Revell said.

Bennett said he didn't know yet what less lethal options the deputies had available to them Thursday night, other than the pepper spray, or what the deputies may have considered in making the choice.

The shooting will be reviewed by the San Diego County district attorney's office and the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board to determine whether it was legal and within the Sheriff's Department shooting policy.

"First, you'd look at what the policy is for the use of deadly force and the availability of any less lethal weapons," said Mary D. Powers, coordinator of the National Coalition on Police Accountability, a watchdog group based in Chicago.

Usually, Powers said, deadly force policy is based on deputies or officers being afraid for their lives, "which is legitimate, except that people do seem to be in fear of their lives in pretty strange situations at times."

Bennett said it wasn't known yet whether the Vista man had any criminal history or had been drinking or taking drugs.

As he outlined it, deputies first went to the home Wednesday to take a missing person's report about the man's wife.

The family in the adjoining residence said the couple have lived about five months in the two-bedroom attached duplex, sharing it with Luis and Cecilia Perea.

The man's roommates said that his wife had left on her own accord, but the deputies filed a missing person's report, Bennett said.

At 12:36 a.m. Thursday, Bennett said, deputies were called back to the home because the man was upset and wanted to know about the investigation.

"He did seem a little more agitated, a little more irrational than the first time," the lieutenant said.

He said the deputies assured the man that detectives were looking into the case, did the best they could to calm him, and left.

About 8 p.m. Thursday, Bennett said, the roommate's wife called, saying the man had forced his way into her bedroom and grabbed her, demanding to know where his wife was and if she had hidden her.

Sergio Lopez, Perea's 11-year-old nephew who lives across the street, said his aunt told him the man tried to knock down their door "because he thought they had his wife in there, but she lives in Mexico."

"She said he was screaming and acting all crazy," Sergio said.

Three deputies were sent to the home because of the man's increasing volatility, Bennett said. He said both roommates met the deputies outside, told them what was going on and how hostile the situation had become.

Concerned about the roommates' safety, Bennett said, the deputies went into the home, and the roommates followed them. Two deputies familiar with the man from earlier calls knocked on the man's bedroom door and it opened.

"They could see him and gave him verbal demands," Bennett said. "He was clenching and unclenching his hands."

The man reached under his bed, grabbed two dumbbells weighing about 10 pounds each and aggressively charged the two male deputies, Bennett said.

He said one deputy pepper sprayed the man as he threw a dumbbell that hit the deputy's forearm and the pepper spray can. The man was still coming at the deputies as they backed into the small living room, Bennett said.

The deputy hit with the dumbbell fired a shot that missed, then fired again as the second deputy also fired a round, said Bennett. He said the man fell to the floor and the deputies immediately started first aid, calling paramedics.

Neighbors and witnesses said Friday that they heard three shots fired and that the third deputy, a woman, ran outside the house before the shooting started.

Struck at least once in the upper body, the man was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

Staff writers Yvette Urrea and Anne Riley-Katz contributed to this story. Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.