Watch Calif. Police Stop Man who Points Gun at Driver During Chase

George Kelly

East Bay Times

HAYWARD, CA—Police released audio and video depicting a man's shooting by an officer two months after a pursuit from an apartment complex into an unincorporated Alameda County roadway.

Video posted Thursday of the Oct. 24, 2022, shooting used footage from officers' body-worn cameras, and an accompanying statement by Hayward police Deputy Chief Bryan Matthews begins with footage of a Mercedes sedan entering a Hayward apartment complex's west gate in the 21000 block of Gary Drive at 9:43 a.m., followed by footage of the Mercedes leaving through the complex's east gate fifteen minutes later.

Audio recordings show callers alerting dispatchers about the man's arrival, with one woman telling a dispatcher "my doorbell just rang, um, it was my daughter's ex-boyfriend and he came in here and he showed me a gun."

The woman tells the dispatcher she managed to kick the man out, but he continued to ring a doorbell, bang on the woman's door and demand keys to a vehicle.

Moments later, the woman told the dispatcher she could hear audible loud noises: "I don't know if these are gunshots I'm hearing just now or what. Yeah, he's shooting, he's shooting. ... He just shot my daughter's car."

Despite the dispatcher's caution to take care, the woman managed to leave the house and described seeing the man leaving in a silver Mercedes.

The dispatcher also received other callers, including a next-door neighbor who provided additional descriptions of the man's hair, clothing and items he had with him, and a resident who described witnessing the car shooting from her bedroom window.

Police found the Mercedes as it drove east along Grove Way from the complex, but it did not yield when officers tried to pull it over. Officers followed it as it drove onto eastbound Interstate 580 lanes, with its driver showing pursuing officers a handgun at one point and reaching speeds of 85 mph at another point, before it drove off the highway at the Eden Canyon Road exit.

As the Mercedes headed north on Eden Canyon, officers used their patrol vehicles to ram it off the roadway onto an embankment, ending the pursuit. The driver got out on foot and began running north.

Body-worn camera footage from one officer shows the man running along Eden Canyon, gun in hand, and ignoring an officer's calls to surrender: "Show me your hands! You're going to get shot! Drop the gun and you won't get hurt!"

But moments later, as the man continued to ignore officers' commands, he approached a white Jeep driven by a woman heading southbound along Eden Canyon, pointing a gun at her and reaching toward her car's door handle.

As the Jeep drove past, the officer fires once at the man, who drops the gun in his hand and falls down, ending the released footage segment. The Jeep's driver was not injured, and officers recovered a loaded handgun at the scene.

Officers summoned first responders, who provided care for the man before taking him to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Investigators did not release the man's name, but said "a record check revealed the man had no criminal history prior to the date of this incident." The involved officers' names were not released due to what police claimed were threats against them.

Two involved officers received treatment at hospitals for injuries sustained during the pursuit, police said. The injuries were not considered life-threatening.

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office will investigate the shooting as it happened within their jurisdiction. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office will conduct a separate and parallel investigation into the shooting.

An independent third-party consulting firm will investigate the incident to find out whether officers followed department policy, and case information will be referred to the state attorney general.

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