Calif. Officers Shoot Man Who Allegedly Reached For Gun

Scott Moulton stayed behind the gate of his Santa Clara four-plex when he heard a policeman's voice across the street, loud and demanding.

"Put your hands on top of your head!" the officer shouted at about 9:45 p.m. Saturday.

Within a minute, Moulton heard the officer yell twice more, each time louder and more insistent: "Put your hands on top of your head or I'll shoot!"

Then came the unsettling sound of live gunfire -- a loud "pop pop" -- as the officer, just two years on the Santa Clara Police force, shot and killed a motorist he had pulled over on a routine traffic violation. On Sunday, Santa Clara Police Capt. Phil Cooke said the shooting occurred after the 42-year-old driver "attempted to arm himself with a handgun."

Police would not identify either the motorist or the officer, who was working alone in his patrol car Saturday night. It was the first officer-involved shooting death of the year for the city of Santa Clara. The District Attorney's office along with Santa Clara police are jointly investigating the shooting.

Precise details remain unknown, but Cooke said the officer pulled over the driver on the 2400 block of Karen Drive, just off Homestead Road near San Tomas Expressway. The driver apparently lived in that neighborhood dense with apartment complexes.

"As the stop progressed, the suspect became uncooperative," Cooke said. When the officer suspected the driver might be under the influence of alcohol he called for backup.

Before more police could arrive, said Cooke, the officer realized that the suspect was "reaching for a weapon."

Cooke didn't know the details of where the gun might have been at the time, but "it became clear he was in close proximity to the weapon and wasn't cooperating with the officer," said the captain. "The officer was then forced to fire his own weapon to stop and incapacitate the suspect."

The motorist was pronounced dead at the scene.

Moulton heard it all, including the deluge of sirens that swarmed into the neighborhood. But he never saw a thing.

"If this is gunfire," he told himself that night, "I'm going back inside."

Contact Julia Prodis Sulek at [email protected] or 408-278-3409.

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