GEYSERVILLE, Calif. (KRON) -- The Santa Rosa Police Department identified the man who was killed in a police shooting in Geyserville on July 29. David Pelaez Chavez, a 36-year-old Lower Lake resident, was shot and killed by a Sonoma County Sheriff's Office deputy.
Police also identified the deputies involved in the shooting -- Michael Dietrick, a five-year veteran of SCSO, and Anthony Powers, who has been with the sheriff's office for five months. Dietrick worked for the Clearlake Police Department for three years and 11 months before joining SCSO and Powers spent three years and four months with the San Francisco Police Department before SCSO.
SRPD described what happened leading up to the shooting in a press release sent out on Monday. It added context to the details SCSO provided after the incident.
SRPD said that Chavez's sedan was reported as suspicious on the 10000 block of Highway 128 in Geyserville around 7:30 a.m. Deputies found the car, but Chavez was not at the scene.
At 8:20 a.m., a citizen in Healdsburg reported to SCSO that an unknown person used a rock to try to break a window at his home on the 5200 block of Tre Monte Lane. He later told detectives that he saw Chavez walk to the exterior door of a bedroom and a use a rock to smash the windowpane.
The homeowner told Chavez to leave and fired two warning shots with a firearm, police said. Chavez then came across an employee of the homeowner and physically forced the employee away from their truck.
According to police, Chavez drove away, dragging the employee 20 feet. He drove through gates and fences before crashing in a ditch near the 5600 block of Tre Monte Lane. The employee was not seriously injured.
Carrying more rocks, Chavez went up to another nearby residence. The armed homeowner told Chavez to leave and Chavez then told the homeowner to shoot him, SRPD said.
After leaving that house, police said Chavez stole a "Gator-style utility vehicle" on the 5600 block of Thomas Road. He eventually crashed the vehicle on a rural road and ran more than a mile away without shoes.
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Deputies pursued Chavez and caught up to him in the creek bed of Franz Creek, about a mile east of where he crashed the utility vehicle. SRPD said he was armed with a large rock, a claw hammer, and a tool comprised of a pickax-style blade and a three-pronged fork.
One deputy tried to talk to Chavez and was threatened with a large rock, according to police. The deputy, who was standing in the water, went to find cover.
The second deputy asked Chavez to drop his weapons, but Chavez refused and yelled "nonsensical statements," per police. Chavez dropped the rock, picked up another "and made a movement that indicated he was threatening to hurl the rock at the deputy," SRPD said. The deputy fired three shots at Chavez. It is unknown how many times he was struck.
The deputies attempted to provide medical aid, but Chavez was pronounced dead 26 minutes after the shooting. An investigation is ongoing, and Dietrick and Powers were placed on paid administrative leave.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/wRCWYab
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