The Sonoma County sheriff's deputy who was critically injured in a March 4 shootout and car chase west of Santa Rosa was run over by another deputy, investigators said Thursday.
After a 53-year-old Santa Rosa man fired as many as 50 rounds from an AK-47 at deputies, they chased him through the area of Todd and Stony Point roads until Jose Luis Villaseñor Cervantes ultimately crashed his car.
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Cervantes "intentionally" drove head-first into a patrol car driven by Deputy Nicholas Dellia, according to information released Thursday by the Santa Rosa Police Department, which is investigating the incident under the county's protocol for police incidents that result in death or serious injury.
Dellia was laying out a spike strip to stop Cervantes' car and was outside his vehicle in a nearby drainage ditch at the time of the crash, according to police. He fired his pistol at Cervantes several times following the crash.
An autopsy, however, indicates it was blunt-force trauma from the crash, not gunshot wounds, that killed Cervantes.
As Dellia fired at Cervantes, Deputy James Blount, arriving at the crash scene, struck Dellia with his patrol car. The deputy was hospitalized in critical condition as a result.
Public records and sources indicate Blount is the son of Charles Blount, a former Sonoma County sheriff's deputy who left the force because of his role in the high-profile November 2019 death of David Ward. Then-Sheriff Mark Essick announced he intended to fire Blount after reviewing the body camera footage from that incident, but the deputy resigned before the termination process was complete.
A Sonoma County jury acquitted Charles Blount of involuntary manslaughter and assault charges brought by the District Attorney's Office over Ward's death.
Law enforcement officials on Thursday did not immediately confirm the relationship, but sources familiar with the incident said Deputy James Blount is the son of the former deputy.
James Blount has been a deputy for 10 months, according to police. The website Transparent California, which tracks public workers' salaries, indicates he worked for the department as a correctional officer beginning in 2019, the year his father left the Sheriff's Office.
Blount was injured in the shootout that preceded the car chase, as well. Though initial reports from law enforcement agencies described a gunshot wound to his leg, the latest information described "several projectile wounds" to Blount's lower right leg.
Four deputies were injured during the March 4 incident, but the news release Thursday named seven total deputies involved, including Blount and Dellia.
Deputy Joseph Nouguier, who has served five years and seven months at the agency, was the first officer to reach Cervantes, following a 911 call at around 12:10 a.m. that a man was brandishing a gun outside a nightclub at Stony Point and Todd roads.
Nouguier found Cervantes driving his white sedan in circles near Todd Road and Standish Avenue, and tried to conduct a traffic stop in a parking lot.
Before Nougier could put his car in park, Cervantes exited his vehicle and began to fire an AK-47 at him.
Audio from a nearby home security camera obtained by The Press Democrat captures sustained rifle fire over eight seconds in the first exchange.
Nougier suffered a laceration on his left hand that required 15 sutures.
From the cover of his vehicle, which appears spattered with bullet holes in photos of the incident, he shot back at Cervantes. Police are still determining the number of rounds he fired.
As other deputies arrived on scene, Cervantes fired at them, and they fired back. Blount shot back at Cervantes with both his pistol and a rifle, according to police.
Deputy Giulia Geary was also injured during that shootout. Shrapnel from Cervantes' rounds lacerated her right hand and fragments were found embedded in her body armor. Her body camera and pepper spray, which she wore on her torso, were also damaged.
Geary did not fire rounds at Cervantes, according to Santa Rosa police.
Deputies Jeannine Yebra and Keegan Cutting both fired an unknown number of rounds at Cervantes during the shootout.
Cutting fired another round at Cervantes when he stopped his car in the nightclub parking lot during the chase. After that gunshot, Cervantes got back in his car and fled again.
Deputy Karl Huey was also part of the incident but did not shoot, according to the police department's release.
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