Calif. Man Shot by Police Was Holding Toy Gun
SAN JOSE, Calif.
New information was released Monday night about a San Jose police shooting of a man armed with nothing but a toy gun that took place over the weekend.
Police issued a photo of the plastic gun that that prompted San Jose police officers to open fire on the man just before 8 a.m. Sunday morning.
A witness told a KTVU crew that the man had passed out in a hotel staircase after being at a Halloween party.
In addition to the photo of the toy gun, police released the tapes of officers at the scene of the shooting talking to dispatch.
"I think he has a gun in his waistband. Visual," an officer can be heard saying on the recording. "He's breathing lying down, copy."
Police said they found the man wearing medical scrubs asleep in the stairwell of the Extended Stay Hotel on Brokaw Road. They said they spotted the butt of a gun tucked in the waistband of his pants.
Police said when they awakened him, he reached for the gun and police opened fire, hitting him multiple times.
"Shots fired. Shots fired," an officer can be heard on the audio recordings. Have ambulances stage, Copy, shots fired, shots fired."
25 year old Javier Gonzales-Guerrero of San Jose was still in the hospital Monday night. Police said he will survive and they have yet to talk to him.
"We're talking about split second decisions where this individual awakes and makes some threatening movement towards the officers with the firearm," explained San Jose Police Officer Jose Garcia.
Police are waiting test results to see if Gonzales-Guerrero was under the influence.
"We may hesitate and it may look like a replica and be in fact a real gun and that will put us in a very dangerous situation," said Garcia.
The four officers involved in the shooting have been on the force from 13-to-20 years.
They remain on administrative leave in accordance with department policy at a time when there are already fewer officers on the streets of San Jose.
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