"It was so loud": Burglary in Tracy leads to officer-involved shooting
TRACY - Three Tracy police officers are on administrative leave for firing their weapons at burglary suspects, sending one to the hospital who is in critical but stable condition.
It happened in a large industrial area in the 6000 block of Hopkins Road at around 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
Tracy police said three men and one woman were breaking into the Best Buy Warehouse trailers. When officers arrived on the scene, the four suspects were already in a vehicle.
The driver was identified as Sergio Garibay 39, of Oakland. The vehicle was later determined to have been stolen out of San Jose. Garibay attempted to run two police officers over with the vehicle, police said.
The Tracy Police Department said all three officers who responded to the burglary fired at the vehicle, hitting Garibay multiple times.
Garibay remains hospitalized and will be booked into the San Joaquin County Jail once he's cleared for release. He faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, burglary, and conspiracy.
Also arrested were Oakland residents Brenda Prado, 27, and Jose Aguilar, 36. Both face charges of burglary and conspiracy while Aguilar faces an additional charge of obstructing a peace officer.
"God bless his soul and everything, but I hoped that they learned their lesson," said private security guard Ramona Perez, who was patrolling the area when it happened.
The stolen car was towed from the scene just before 5 p.m. Sunday when the crime scene investigators pulled down the caution tape.
Investigators are reviewing body camera video from the confrontation to get a clearer picture of what happened.
Besides street racers, Perez said she has not run into much trouble while patrolling the area until now.
"I think this is just the beginning. People are so fearless now, they don't care about anything," Perez said.
The fourth suspect remains on the loose. Police do not have much description of him besides he was in dark clothing, and they do not believe he is a threat to the public.
Both the California Department of Justice and the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office are investigating the officer-involved shooting.
"We try to respond quickly and arrest people without any kind of force, but obviously, this time, something happened that caused it to escalate to that," said Tracy Police Sergeant Michael Richards.