Officers identified in Salinas O.I.S. case
UPDATE 1/24/17 5:12 PM: The Salinas Police Department has released the names of two officers who fired their weapons in a deadly officer-involved shooting last Wednesday.
Officer Manuel Lopez, Jr., a 9-year Salinas Police Department veteran, and Officer Jared Dominici, a 3-year Salinas police veteran, are on administrative leave, as is standard procedure during an O.I.S. investigation.
Adele Frese, Salinas chief of police, is currentlyl meeting with reporters at city hall. We will update this story as new information becomes available.
UPDATE 1/20/17 3:17 PM: The Monterey County District Attorney’s office identified the teen shot and killed by Salinas police as Marlon Joel Rodas-Sanchez. The shooting happened Wednesday.
UPDATE 1/18/2017 5:30 PM: A teen is dead after an officer-involved shooting in Salinas.
According to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, a 911 call came in around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday about a suspicious man armed with something described as a butcher knife on the 600 block of Terrace Street in Salinas. He was described as acting erratically and swinging the knife recklessly.
Officers arrived in minutes, looking for ways to subdue him.
“I saw when police got there and they told him to put down the knife and that they didn’t want to hurt him,” a witness said.
A Salinas fire crew tried hosing him down to get him to drop the knife but it didn’t work. There was talk of pinning him to the wall with a ladder or shield but things evolved too quickly.
“Four officers then deployed non-lethal bullets, rubber bullets, which was ineffective in this situation. Then the decision was then made to deploy Tasers. Three Tasers were deployed, all of which were ineffectual,” said Ed Hazel, managing deputy district attorney for the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office.
Hazel said the teenager was near a shed at the back of the property when he ran into the main house. At that moment, officers didn’t know if there were people inside.
“The suspect, still wielding a knife, turned around and approached the officers,” Hazel said. “The officers then used lethal force in dealing with the suspect and he was killed at the scene.”
Two officers opened fire. One was armed with an AR-15, the other with a .45 handgun. Eight shell casings were recovered, but it’s unclear how many times he was hit. An autopsy will determine that and toxicology results will shed light on whether he was on anything.
“We have had one report that someone saw him appear to snort something into his nose,” Hazel said. “We are still looking into that, to try and confirm that information.”
A witness at the scene told KION that he rented a room to the teenager.
“I feel bad because someone would never want this to happen, especially with a young person like that,” he said.
There are two investigations happening right now. One investigation, by Salinas police, will determine if the teenager did anything criminally wrong. The second is by the District Attorney’s Office, where the actual shooting will be investigated. That investigation could last months, at which point, a senior attorney would assess the final report and see from a legal perspective if any crimes were committed.
Officers were wearing body cameras and that footage is being reviewed by investigators.
UPDATE 1/18/2017 2:10 AM: The Salinas Police Department reports that the two officers involved in Wednesday’s fatal shooting have been placed on administrative leave, pending the results of an investigation.
UPDATE 1/18/2017 10:50 AM: New details are emerging in the investigation of a fatal officer-involved shooting that happened early Wednesday morning in Salinas.
Salinas police report it happened around 1:30 a.m..
According the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, which is handling the investigation, Salinas police officers used a fire hose, rubber bullets and tasers before fatally shooting a juvenile male who was armed with a knife.
Deputy District Attorney Ed Hazel told KION’s Mariana Hicks that officers found the young man sharpening a knife on the concrete outside a home in the 600 block of Terrace Street.
The suspect refused to drop the knife and moved toward an occupied bedroom behind a home. Officers followed him into the home and when he turned toward officers with his weapon, they used lethal force. It’s unknown if the home was occupied at the time.
Two officers fired, one with an AR-15 and the other with a service weapon. The suspect died at the scene.
There was no immediate word how long the officers had been with the Salinas Police Department.
ORIGINAL STORY: Monterey County District Attorney’s Office is investigating an officer involved shooting in Salinas.
It happened around 2:30 am. on Wednesday near Terrace Street.
Investigators have not released what led up to the shooting and there’s no word on the condition of the person who was shot or the officer’s involved.
KION will continue to update this developing story.
