CHP Officer Shoots Armed Man In South Sacramento
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- A CHP officer shot a 21-year-old man carrying a gun in south Sacramento shortly before noon Thursday, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.
The shooting occurred in the 4100 block of 23rd Avenue near Del Norte Boulevard. The man was shot once in the chest and transported by ambulance to UC Davis Medical Center with non-life-treating injuries, according to sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.
"I heard like bam -- and then bam, bam, bam, bam," said one neighbor. "I yelled out to my wife, 'somebody is out there shooting.'"
The man's mother, Rachel Valadez, tells CBS13's Maria Medina he'd turned to drugs and has been mentally unstable ever since his father's death in a hit-and-run in 2002. She said he was recently released from a mental facility.
"There is something wrong with him. He's gone cuckoo clock in the head," said Valadez. "And I'm his mom and that's sad to say."
Valadez said she hopes her son gets help and not jail time.
"I know officers were probably doing their job," she said. "I would like to know what happened. I want some answers and I don't want them to treat me like garbage.
Ramos said the CHP officer was on routine patrol in the area when he noticed the man walking near Sam's Market with a gun in his hand. The man refused repeated commands to put down the gun, then started walking away, Ramos said.
The CHP officer observed the man, whose identity wasn't released, attempting to load the gun and -- believing a round was in the chamber and the man was readying to fire -- the officer shot several rounds at the suspect, who was hit once in the chest and fell into a neighbor's yard at 23rd and Del Norte, Ramos said.
One woman said gunshots in the neighborhood are no surprise. "It's still not a shock to me," Marie Burton said.
The officer, whose name also wasn't released, was put on paid administrative leave per standard procedure. He's 38 and has been with the CHP for six and a half years, Ramos said.
The sheriff's department is investigating the shooting and what charges the man might face.
