Armed suspect who allegedly stole car dies in Calaveras County shootout with deputies
CALAVERAS COUNTY – An armed suspect who was on the run in Calaveras County died in a shootout with sheriff's deputies, authorities said Wednesday evening.
The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office says authorities have been searching for the suspect, identified as 32-year-old Valley Springs resident Octavio Hernandez, since Tuesday morning after he allegedly stole a vehicle in San Joaquin County.
Deputies say Hernandez ditched the car along the 400 block of Buena Vista Court, but at one point the sheriff's office said someone matching his description was spotted near Harding Road.
The sheriff's office noted that, as of Wednesday, they had been focusing on trying to communicate with Hernandez in the Calaveras River Canyon to get him to surrender. A cell phone was given to Hernandez, the sheriff's office says, but Hernandez had refused to cooperate well into the afternoon hours after several attempts to get him to separate himself from a rifle and cooperate.
As a crisis negotiation team persisted in their efforts to get Hernandez to surrender, an arrest team began moving in, the sheriff's office said. It was then that an unmanned aerial vehicle spotted that Hernandez had a handgun in his clothing. Hernandez refused other attempts to surrender the firearm and continued moving deeper into the canyon, the sheriff's office said.
Shortly before 3:30 p.m., Hernandez fired the handgun at law enforcement officials approaching his position, the sheriff's office said. Authorities then returned gunfire.
Hernandez was declared dead at the scene. There were no reported injuries by law enforcement.