Bodycam: Calif. Deputy Fatally Shoots Knife-Wielding Suspect

March 2, 2022

A Riverside County sheriff’s deputy responded to a call about a man with a knife slashing the tires of parked cars, and the deputy tried to use non-lethal methods to subdue the suspect before opening fire.

Source The Press-Enterprise

A Riverside County, CA, sheriff's deputy fatally shot a man with a knife who allegedly had been slashing the tires of parked cars in January.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department released body-worn camera footage Saturday, Feb. 26 of a shooting in January when a man suspected of slashing tires outside a Calimesa business was shot to death by a deputy.

Around 9 a.m. on Jan. 11, a man wielding a knife slashed the tires of five vehicles in a parking lot in the 1000 block of Cherry Valley Boulevard before trying to enter a 7-Eleven gas station, Sheriff Chad Bianco said in the video, though employees were able to lock the door before he could enter. In a 9-1-1 call, an employee describes the man wandering outside the store popping tires and threatening customers with the knife for gas money.

He was identified as Jose Juan Marquez, a 43-year-old resident of Bloomington.

A deputy from the Cabazon station located Marquez walking down the Eastbound 10 Freeway onramp, still carrying the knife, and ordered him to get on the ground. An off-duty San Bernardino police officer on the way to work saw the confrontation and stopped to assist.

In the body-worn footage, the deputy and the off-duty officer ordered Marquez several times to drop the knife and get on the ground, but when he continued to advance towards authorities with the knife, the deputy fired two 40mm less-lethal munitions. When Marquez still continued his advances, the deputy then tried to use a taser to subdue him, to no avail.

After the non-lethal attempts to subdue Marquez failed, the deputy fired two shots at him. The deputy attempted to perform life-saving measures on Marquez before he was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.

An investigation found that just before 9 a.m., Marquez had made similar threats demanding gas money at a convenience store in the 31000 block of Yucaipa in San Bernardino County, Bianco said. Marquez fled the scene in a vehicle eastbound on the 10 Freeway before San Bernardino Sheriff’s deputies discovered his vehicle parked on the freeway shoulder a short distance from where he was found walking on the onramp.

The deputy involved in the shooting was placed on paid administrative leave per department policy while it continues the investigation. The name of the deputy was not released.

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