Four Shooting By Sheriff’s Deputies, Two Fatal, In 8 Days

Since July 10, deputies with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department have been involved in four shootings, two of which were fatal.
On July 10 at around 11:10 a.m., the sheriff’s department received a report of an assault in the 18100 block of Poinciana Road in Adelanto. According to the victim, a female, her attacker had fled on foot. Deputies looking for the suspect in a nearby apartment complex encountered a man roughly fitting the description of the perpetrator in the complex’s laundry room.
“The door opened, and the suspect emerged, advancing toward the deputies while armed with a knife, and a deputy-involved shooting occurred,” according to the department.
The man felled by the gunfire was Darrell Allen, 32, of Adelanto, according to the department. Allen was pronounced dead at Victor Valley Hospital, to which he was transported after the shooting.
The Daily Press newspaper, based in Victorville, in an article authored by reporter Garrett Bergthold, quoted a nearby resident, Lakendra Williams, who said she witnessed the shooting. According to Williams per Bergthold, Allen was unarmed and had his hands in the air when he was fired upon by two deputies who shot a total of eight times.
According to Bergthold’s report, the apartment manager where Allen lived across the street from the apartment complex where he was killed heard an argument between Allen and his girlfriend prior to the incident.
The sheriff’s department has assigned the investigation of the incident to Detective Kevin McCurdy.
At 5:29 a.m Tuesday July 16, an as-yet unidentified deputy sheriff responding to a phoned-in report of illegal dumping of debris and trash near Orchid Avenue and Hackberry Street in Hesperia attempted to stop what was described as “an older Chevy truck.” When the deputy did so, according to the sheriff’s department, the truck “Quickly left the scene.”
The truck was being driven by Leaire Moore, 43 of Hesperia, according to the department. With the deputy in pursuit, according to the department, Moore came to a stop on East Santa Fe Avenue near Darwin Road. When the approaching deputy was coming up on the truck, according to the department, Moore attempted to run the deputy down, at which point “a deputy-involved shooting occurred.”
Moore then sought to get away over the Union Pacific and Santa Fe Railroad Tracks, but the truck was unable to clear them and the undercarriage of the vehicle became hung up. With the truck disabled, Moore and a woman passenger fled from the truck on foot. Shortly thereafter, the woman was detained as other deputies arrived at the scene. Deputies, police dogs and aviation units were utilized in an effort to find Moore but were unsuccessful during a several-hour-long search.
The sheriff’s department thereafter put out an all points bulletin for Moore, stating that he was believed to be armed.
Meanwhile, Moore made a posting on Facebook in which he said he intended to turn himself over to authorities but not before he provided his version of events so “I can tell my side of the story. He acknowledged that the incident occurred following “days of being on drugs and homeless” and he had fallen asleep in the truck at the side of the road with his female companion. He was awakened by her, he said, who alerted him to the approaching officer. He “wrongfully,” he said, “took off in my truck.” He said his effort to leave the area was obstructed by the officer and that when he attempted to drive around him, the deputy opened fire on him. He had not, Moore claimed, shot at the officer or attempted to run him down.
Moore has more than 20 criminal convictions, including robbery, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, infliction of corporal injury on a spouse, violation of supervised probation, possession of a controlled substance, possession of dangerous drugs, transportation of a controlled substance, fleeing a police officer, evading a police officer and a series of more than a dozen lesser and greater violations of the vehicle code, including driving under the influence.
A warrant was issued for his arrest and the attention with regard to Moore revived an ongoing case against him filed in March involving making criminal threats, being a felon in possession of a firearm, assault with a firearm and contempt of court.
At 7:30 p.m. on July 17, Moore came into to the High Desert Detention Center and surrendered. He was taken into custody and booked for attempted murder of a peace officer. He was charged in Superior Court today with evading a police officer, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm and being a drug addict who owns, purchases, receives, or has in his possession or under his custody or control a firearm.
He remains in custody in lieu of $1,000,000 bail.
Tuesday evening, July 16, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies in Chino Hills opened fire on and killed a 52-year-old man who was reportedly acting erratically on a public thoroughfare.
At 7:47 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, deputies were summoned to the area of Descanso and Pipeline avenues following reports of a man brandishing a knife, who was yelling and walking in and out of traffic.
After less-than-lethal rounds were employed but failed to have any appreciable effect on the man, later identified as Jose Javier Gonzalez, 52 of Chino Hills, an unidentified deputy approached him. At that point, according to the department, Gonzalez ran at the deputy with two knives. The deputy shot and fatally wounded Gonzales, who was taken to Pomona Valley Medical Center. Gonzalez was pronounced dead there just before 12:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The section of Pipeline Avenue where the shooting took place was closed for the investigation from shortly after the shooting occurred until almost 10:50 a.m. Wednesday.
The sheriff’s department maintains the deputy’s action was justified in that Gonzalez was threatening to kill people and “appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance.” Gonzalez was uncooperative throughout the incident and did not comply with the responding deputies’ orders that he drop the knives, according to the department.
The department has assigned Detective Chuck Phillips to investigate the shooting.
On Wednesday afternoon, July 17, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies in Victorville opened fire on a man in a black Chevrolet Suburban after he drove the vehicle toward them.
Those deputies encountered the man in the parking lot of a of business on Seventh Street. The sheriff’s deputies were sent to the area, in the 15000 block of Seventh Avenue, in response to a report which came in at 2:39 p.m. of a man with a gun threatening people at that location.
Shortly thereafter, a number of deputies converged on the black Suburban, yet stationary in the parking lot. Passersby and others at the scene used cellphone cameras to capture the incident on video. Those videos show a protracted scene in which sheriff’s department personnel seem to be trying to wait out the occupant of the vehicle. More than an hour into the video, the Suburban begins to move, setting out between two Sheriff’s vehicles and heading toward an exit from the parking lot onto the street. When it reached the sidewalk at Seventh Street, the deputies opened fire. The Suburban did not progress any further than the west side of Seventh Stree. Its occupant, an African-American man wearing an eye patch, did not emerge from the vehicle.
According to the sheriff’s department, the shooting occurred because the man had not complied with orders that he exit the vehicle and then “suddenly accelerated toward deputies and their units.”
According to the department, a deputy was injured during the incident, flown to a hospital, treated and released.
Deputies then utilized a loudspeaker to bark commands to the vehicle’s occupant that he come out of it, as sheriff’s department snipers with rifles took up positions on the roof of the nearest building.
After further time elapsed, deputies approached the Suburban from the protection of two armored vehicles parked on either side of the Suburban. They were able to remove the man from the Suburban without further incident. He was apparently injured, perhaps even immobile, as he was laid out in a gurney and wheeled to an ambulance that was waiting nearby.
The man in the vehicle has not been identified.
-Mark Gutglueck

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