Slain Hayward Officer Feared Violence Before Fatal Shot
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- A fellow police officer testified Thursday that Hayward police Sgt. Scott Lunger appeared to know that something bad would happen shortly before a suspect fatally shot him during an early morning traffic stop two years ago.
Taking the witness stand in the preliminary hearing for 22-year-old Mark Estrada, who is charged with murder and three special circumstances clauses for the shooting near Myrtle and Lion streets in Hayward at about 3:15 a.m. on July 22, 2015, Officer Justin Green said Lunger, 48, said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" just before a suspect in a white Chevrolet Silverado truck shot him.
Green, who had just arrived at the scene to provide backup to Lunger, a 15-year Hayward police veteran who lived in Brentwood, said, "I knew he (Lunger) saw something that was not good."
He said Lunger had broadcast on the police radio that he was stopping the truck because it was being driven erratically. He said he believed it was the same truck he had heard doing donuts in that same area a few moments earlier.
Green said after he heard Lunger's comments, "I came up as fast as I could and I heard a gunshot from the truck."
The Hayward officer testified that he fired multiple rounds into the truck but the suspect, later identified by police as Estrada, managed to drive away.
Green said that he ran up to Lunger but Lunger had blood on his head, didn't seem to have a pulse and wasn't responsive.
Lunger was transported to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley but was pronounced dead a short time later.
Hayward police Officer Robert Purnell wrote in a probable cause statement that Estrada abandoned his truck at 98th and Edes avenues in East Oakland and later walked into San Leandro Hospital to be treated for his gunshot wounds.
Authorities contacted Estrada at San Leandro Hospital but eventually moved him to Highland Hospital in Oakland to be treated for a gunshot wound to his left lower flank above his waist.
Estrada admitted to a doctor that he was shot while he was in the driver's seat of his vehicle near A Street in Hayward but wouldn't say who had shot him, Purnell wrote.
Estrada's preliminary hearing will determine if there's enough evidence for him to stand trial and is expected to last about three days. The courtroom was packed Thursday with Lunger's family members, Hayward police officers and a large contingent of Estrada's family members and friends.
