The man and woman who were shot and killed downtown have been identified as a married couple. The shootings launched a manhunt for the gunman, which ended in a shootout with police. NBC 7’s Shandel Menzes reports on Nov. 14, 2024.
The identities of a couple and the gunman who shot them to death in their car in Little Italy were released Thursday by San Diego police.
Investigators said Jose Medina, 41, and Rachael Martinez, 32, were married. Their killer, 26-year-old Christopher Farrell, was, like his two victims, a San Diego resident.
Also on Thursday, police said Farrell reloaded his semi-automatic handgun as he fled the scene north on foot instead of getting in his vehicle, which has since been located near 4th Avenue and Ash Street and impounded. Investigators also said that, in addition to finding Farrell's gun behind an electrical box near Juniper Street and Kettner Boulevard where he was fatally hit by gunfire, they also found "multiple folding knives, a knife sheath on the belt of his pants, a holster, a black tactical flashlight, three magazines clipped to his pants pocket, and an empty magazine on the ground."
Investigators also said Thursday that the Harbor Police officer whom Farrell shot, who has not yet been identified, was previously employed by the San Diego Police Department for one year. The two Harbor Police officers who shot Farrell are veterans with six and nine years, respectively, with that department.
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As NBC 7 reported earlier in the day, the female victim, Martinez, had been involved romantically with Farrell prior to the shooting and, in October, filed for a police report against him in which she accused him of domestic violence, including false imprisonment and sex crimes, all information police confirmed in a news release issued Thursday . Farrell was later arrested based on those accusations and his work firearm — he had been employed with Inter-Con Security, which provides contract security guards for the MTS — was terminated.
Deadly Downtown Shootings
Three days later, Martinez was granted a temporary restraining order against Farrell, police said, and the "restraining order hearing was continued to Nov. 13, 2024, the date of the double homicide. It appears likely that Martinez and Medina had arrived near the courthouse for the purpose of attending the restraining order hearing" when they were killed.
That initial round of deadly gunfire erupted in the 1300 block of Union Street shortly before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the San Diego Police Department. Officers arrived to find Medina and Martinez mortally wounded, SDPD Lt. Jud Campbell told reporters. They died at the scene.
About 45 minutes later, as a police helicopter circled over downtown San Diego broadcasting a description of the shooter over a loudspeaker system, a bystander flagged down two officers with the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department in the 2200 block of Kettner Boulevard and directed them to a possible suspect.
When the personnel, joined by two other harbor police officers, tried to contact Farrell, who was hiding behind and electrical box, then an exchange of gunfire ensued, leaving one of the lawmen and Farrell wounded.
The officer — a three-month member of the agency who was taking part in field training at the time of the shootout — was transported to a trauma center for treatment of a gunshot wound to the hip, authorities said. He was still being cared for at the hospital as of Thursday.
Farrell was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
On Wednsday, San Diego police chief Scott Wahl praised the Harbor Police personnel who confronted and subdued the armed suspect under highly perilous circumstances.
"This is Little Italy," he said. "We have people walking the streets, coffee shops. [The officers'] ability to run toward gunfire and courageously engage this individual, I believe, saved lives."
SDPD is asking anybody with information about the case to call (619) 531-2293. Tips can also be called in anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
