Shortly before the suspect was shot, flames and smoke appeared to be rising from the home he was barricaded in, reports NBC 7’s Jeanette Quezada.
A man who exchanged gunfire with San Diego Police Department officers before barricading himself in a home in Encanto on Monday night was later shot dead by an officer from the department's sniper unit, SDPD confirmed that evening.
The next morning, the San Diego Sheriff's department, whose detectives are investigating the police shooting, said that SDPD were responding to to reports of gunfire on Iona Drive near Market Street and Atkins Avenue at around 8:45 p.m. When officers arrived, they found a woman — apparently the gunman's mother, according to SDPD — and a dog on the driveway of the home, both with serious injuries. SDPD said on Monday in a news release that they had both been shot. When the woman was approached by officers, they were shot at by someone inside the home, and an officer returned fire, according to the sheriff's department.
When police tried to use a patrol car as a defensive shield in an effort to rescue the woman, they again came under fire, according to SDPD, which also said that, after moving her to a safe location, they determined she had been shot in the upper body and leg. Investigators said she died at the scene.
“We heard gunshots, but we thought it was, like, a car or something, and we saw the police coming and the SWAT and the firemen, and the gunshots were like 40 minutes,” neighbor Evelyn Luna told NBC 7 on Tuesday.
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"It is still early in the investigation and little is known about the circumstances leading up to the female’s death, other than it appears the suspect is the victim’s son and for unknown reasons he shot and killed his mother and two dogs," San Diego police said in a news release the department sent out on Tuesday.
Next, "San Diego Police Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) were requested due the extreme nature of the situation unfolding," the sheriff's department stated in separate news release, which was also sent out on Tuesday.
During the ensuing standoff, the man inside the home set fire to the garage and refused to surrender. At around 10:45 p.m., SDPD confirmed, an officer from the department's sniper unit shot the suspect. The sheriff's department said he was armed with a rifle at the time he was shot.
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“The neighbors right there, they took them out of the house because they used the house for the snipers," resident Jobanni Garcia told NBC 7 on Tuesday. "So they just took them out and left them right there, but we’re like, 'That’s not safe,' because they told us to stay inside … so I was like, OK. So, the person who lives here brought them inside.”
SWAT team members then entered the house and life-saving measures were performed before and during the gunman's transport to a nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead at around 11 p.m., officials said.
No officers or other civilians were injured during the incident, according to the sheriff's department.
After the shooting, multiple firearms including a rifle, shotgun, and handgun, were found in the house, according to the sheriff's department.
San Diego police said the woman who was killed was 74 years old, and her son was 43. Investigators have not identified either of them yet.
San Diego police are investigating the woman's killing. Per an agreement among local law-enforcement agencies, the San Diego Sheriff's Department is investigating the fatal shooting of the barricaded suspect by a San Diego police officer.
