Sacramento County deputies shot and killed a 34-year-old man near the intersection of Marconi and Eastern avenues Sunday morning after responding to reports of a man sleeping in a car wash parking lot with a handgun in his lap.
SACRAMENTO COUNTY, CA. —
Sacramento County deputies shot and killed a 34-year-old man near the intersection of Marconi and Eastern avenues Sunday morning after responding to reports of a man sleeping in a car wash parking lot with a handgun in his lap.
Calais Johnson, who was vacuuming his car at the time, recorded the incident and described the moments leading up to the shooting.
“There was a gun, but he wasn’t pointing a gun at any officer. He didn’t know what was going on. He was just sleeping,” Johnson said, adding that the man seemed confused after the officers honked their car horn to wake him.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said the man allegedly fired his gun at a couple the night before at the same intersection.
“They know he’s armed and they’re trying to get him to follow simple commands so they can call him back and detain him safely. It’s one of the most dangerous calls a deputy can handle,” said Sgt. said Edward Igoe.
According to Igoe, the officers repeatedly ordered the man to raise his hands and move back toward them. He said the man did not comply and turned toward the deputies while ducking down.
Gunshots and screams followed as three police officers opened fire. The man was taken to hospital, where he died.
“When the shots were fired, I screamed, not because I was afraid. It was because I was shocked,” Johnson said. “I don’t think that man deserved to die like that.”
Johnson said she thought the man was trying to pull up his pants when he was shot.
“His pants were falling down. So he picked them up like that,” Johnson said. “He wasn’t holding a gun on them. I didn’t see any guns. And I was right next to him and I was telling him…I was trying to save his life. So it really hurt me when they killed him.”
Officers recovered a loaded handgun at the scene. The sheriff’s office said whether the gun was on the man’s body at the time of the shooting will be part of the investigation.
The three deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard protocol.
The coroner’s office has not yet identified the man. The Sacramento Homeless Union identified him as Ingold Guttenbeil.
The sheriff’s office said he was arrested in June at the same intersection on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly pointing a gun at a man and woman.
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