STOCKTON, Calif. -- The sun had barely set on New Year's Eve when two southside incidents, one an officer-involved shooting, shattered the final day of 2013.
At 4:57 p.m., Stockton police officers responded to a domestic-disturbance report on Second Street between Grant and Aurora streets. Minutes later, two officers had fired their weapons at a knife-wielding man who suffered nonlife-threatening injuries.
Less than an hour later, police units headed east to follow up on reports of a victim being injured in the head near Vine and Filbert streets.
Early reports indicated a second shooting, but in fact the victim had been hit by a pipe and was expected to fully recover from his injuries.
Sandwiched between those two calls was a potentially fatal car crash. At 5:30 p.m., an unidentified driver of a Jeep Grand Cherokee driving east on Church Street rammed into a utility pole at the Lincoln Street intersection.
Quick-acting witnesses to the crash pulled three occupants from the vehicle before it was completely engulfed in flames. Two unidentified girls, 10 and 8, were airlifted to the UC Davis Regional Burn Center in Sacramento where they were listed in critical condition late New Year's Eve. (See story, Page A1.)
The earlier knife-wielding incident will not result in an internal investigation because of the "insignificant" nature of the victim's injuries.
The Stockton Police Department will not be following the strict officer-involved shooting protocols.
"When officers got to the scene, they went inside the house and found a man armed with a knife," said Officer Joe Silva, a spokesman for the police department. "He refused to comply with their orders to put the knife down.
"Two officers discharged their weapons, striking the suspect."
He was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Copyright 2014 - The Record, Stockton, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
