A San Diego Police Department officer who shot and killed a man Monday while officers were responding to a disturbance call at a home in Mountain View has been identified along with the man.
SDPD has identified the officer as Isai Castillo, a two-year veteran of the department assigned to the Southeastern Division. The man shot and killed has been identified as 39-year-old Alfredo Castro-Gutierrez.
The shooting happened just before 5 a.m. Monday in front of a home along the 300 block of South Pardee Street, between Franklin and Webster avenues. The neighborhood east of Interstate 15, near Mount Hope Cemetery.
SDPD Lt. Matt Dobbs said officers received a call about a half-hour earlier from residents of the home who reported a man who was staying there as a guest was acting "paranoid," and had ripped a metal curtain rod from the wall and was breaking windows and other things inside.
SDPD Capt. Richard Freedman, of the department’s Homicide Unit, said a witness also told 911 that the man was threatening people inside the home.
A neighbor had also called 911 to report the commotion, which they described as sounding like someone was being tortured, Lt. Dobbs said.
The call, which was originally a report of vandalism, was upgraded to a report of violence with a weapon.
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When officers arrived, Dobbs said they set up their command post a short distance away from the home so they could call for resources and plan how to safely respond to the call.
A group of three officers then made their way toward the home, and as they approached they could see the man through the window, and could hear him yelling and breaking things, Dobbs said.
Officers gave the man commands in English and Spanish but were given no response.
As they were getting into position to try and negotiate with the man, the man crawled out of a broken window and made his way toward the gate of the property. Then, he ran at officers, curtain rod in hand, according to Dobbs.
One of the officers deployed a stun gun, and another a bean bag round. The third officer fired his handgun, hitting the man at least once, Dobbs said.
The man fell to the ground.
Dobbs said the officers gave the man medical aid and called medics. He was taken to a local hospital where he died a short time later, the captain confirmed.
No one else was hurt.
The Homicide Unit will investigate the incident and forward its findings to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI, Freedman said.
Investigators do not yet know if the man had a history of violence or mental illness, the captain said.
Freedman said he wasn’t sure how many people were inside the home with the man at the time of the incident, but he did confirm no one else inside was harmed.
