Angelo Jose Saldivar, who on October 27 gunned down San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Nuñez, on November 5 entered not guilty pleas on ten criminal charges and denied seven felony enhancements filed against him by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office two days previously.
Nunez was killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call involving Saldivar and his wife. Saldivar then led Nuñez’s sheriff’s department colleagues and other law enforcement officers on a harrowing chase sometimes reaching 150 miles per hour across six jurisdictions as he fled on a motorcycle.
On November 3, 2025, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office charged Saldivar with one count of violating PC 187(a) – murder; one count of violating PC207(a) – attempted kidnapping; four counts of violating PC245(b) – assault with a semiautomatic firearm; one count of PC246.3(a) – discharge of a firearm; one count of violating PC236 – false imprisonment by violence; one count of violating PC243(e)(1) – battery on a spouse and one count of violating VC 2800.2(a) – evading an officer.
The district attorney’s office also included a PC12022.53 sentencing enhancement/special allegations with the murder charge, the attempted kidnapping charge, the four counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and the one count of discharge of a firearm pertaining to murder to avoid arrest, murder of a police officer, personal and intentional discharge of a firearm and the use of a firearm in commission of the assaults. The four assault charges relate to Saldivar’s alleged intimidation of those who on October 27 called the sheriff’s department to report what appeared to be a violent and escalating confrontation between Saldivar and his ex-wife.
Deputies responded at around12:30 pm on Monday, October 27 to reports of a disturbance, including what was believed to be the discharge of a firearm at 12346 Hollyhock Drive Unit 2 in Rancho Cucamonga, the residence of Saldivar’s ex-wife, Veronica Garcia Saldivar, also known as Veronica Garcia Zaragosa. Veronica had obtained a finalized divorce decree in July. Neighbors reported to the sheriff’s dispatch center that Saldivar was trying force Veronica into a car at gunpoint.
Nuñez, 27, a five-year veteran of the sheriff’s department who had been stationed in Rancho Cucamonga for four of those years, was either the first or the second deputy to arrive as members of the sheriff’s department converged on the Hollyhock Drive residence.
Both Angelo and Veronica are known to have owned numerous firearms, although it is not clear whether the sheriff’s department had institutional knowledge about their gun ownership or whether, if the department had that information, the responding deputies were warned.
Upon the arrival of the deputies, Angelo apparently retreated into the condominium he once shared with his wife and their teenage daughter. It is believed, but has not been confirmed, that he may have armed himself with at least one and perhaps two of his wife’s firearms at that point.
After remaining for a short time inside the condominium, Angelo Saldivar emerged, at which point Nuñez was the closest deputy to the condominium’s entrance. It is not clear whether Nuñez had oriented himself properly as to location or whether he knew that the domestic disturbance was centered at Unit 2 at the 12346 Hollyhock Drive address or an adjoining unit or property. To the nearby residents who were observing the goings-on, it did not appear that Nuñez, who was standing near his patrol unit with the driver’s side door open, saw Angelo Saldivar on the porch or, if he did, recognized he was the individual at the center of the incident he had been called to. Saldivar then raised the gun and fired a single shot at Nuñez, who was no more than 50 to 55 feet away, hitting him in the head.
There are conflicting reports as to whether Saldivar fired more shots at other deputies on the scene, or if the gun shots heard by some bystanders were ones fired by deputies positioned outside the bystanders’ line of sight. Saldivar apparently went back into the condominium, at some point either exiting the condominium from an alternate exit at the back of the building or finding his way into the enclosure of another unit, and from there making his way to his motorcycle. As he was heading away, wearing a backpack and dark helmet and visor, he was spotted by deputies, who gave chase up Day Creek Boulevard. Saldivar then made his way onto the 210 Freeway headed west. There ensued a chase, with the motorcycle far ahead of the pack, accelerating to a speed well in excess of 120 miles per hour and, at one point for a short distance, reaching nearly 150 miles per hour, as Saldivar, blasted past cars traveling at 55, 60, 65, and 70 miles per hour.
He continued west on the 210, but at Fruit Street, he exited from the freeway, turned south and then abruptly got back onto the freeway, heading east. He sped along, zooming to well above 100 miles per hour for a span, weaving through the slower traffic but then slowing to a more conventional speed in the 65-to-75-mile-per hour range, as if he were trying to blend in with the other vehicles on the freeway. At that point, however, such a tactic was virtually impossible, as the Highway Patrol, the Claremont Police Department, the La Verne Police Department, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department had joined the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in the pursuit, and his dangerous and erratic activity had resulted in at least two helicopters – one with a law enforcement agency and another with a television station following him from overhead.
At one point, a pursuing CHP motorcycle caught up with him while he was attempting to cruise along inconspicuously after having dropped into the range of 60-to-65 miles per hour, and he accelerated away once more. At what he took to be a comfortable distance in front of the CHP motorcycle, he slowed once more and took both hands off the handlebars as he armed himself with a handgun he pulled out of his backpack and appeared to be loading it with bullets. As he was nearing Campus Avenue in Upland, Saldivar and his motorcycle were about to pass on the left, as had been the case several hundred times over the previous fifteen minutes or so, another slower-moving vehicle in the Diamond Lane, a gray Toyota. Unbeknownst to Saldivar, at the wheel of the Toyota was an off-duty San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department narcotics division detective.
As the motorcycle closed the distance behind it, the Toyota made an at first subtle drift to its left followed by a somewhat sharper movement across the yellow line separating the Diamond Lane from the inner freeway shoulder. Saldiver reacted to adjust, but at the speed he was traveling at that point – about 68 miles per hour – not in time to avoid having the motorcycle’s front tire plunge into the Toyota’s driver’s side of the car. The impact launched Saldivar in an arc headed over the hood of the car as the driver deftly steered right, avoiding hitting Saldivar who flipped in mid-air and landed on his back on the inner shoulder of the road.
It appeared that two firearms that were in the backpack fell out onto the pavement, when Saldivar’s arms came out of the rucksack’s straps as he was tumbling before coming into contact with the ground.
The motorcycle, meanwhile, careened more sharply leftward than the rider it had now lost, hitting into the retaining while between the eastbound and westbound lanes of the freeway, then bouncing and flipping to come down, temporarily, on Salvidar, as both the bike’s and the man’s momentum carried them eastward.
Within three minutes, at least 21 law enforcement vehicles were parked across four of the lanes west and behind where Saldivar came to rest. Several officers swarmed him, and he was taken into custody. He was airlifted to a hospital after being tended to by paramedics.
He was deemed to be in condition to allow him to leave the hospital. He was transferred to the West Valley Detention Center, where he was placed on a no-bail hold and was booked into custody on suspicion of violating PC245(B) assault on a person with a semiautomatic firearm, violating PC422(A) willfully threatening to engage in criminal activity with the intention of terrorizing a victim or victims and
PC417(B) brandishing or exhibiting a loaded firearm at or near a day care center where youth programs are being conducted. He was not booked on a murder charge.
Saldivar was scheduled to appear for arraignment on November 4 before Judge Shannon Faherty but did not appear, at which point he was rescheduled to appear later before Judge Faherty, but had not yet been transported to court by 10 a.m., whereupon his hearing was rescheduled for 11 a.m. before Judge katrina West. He still had not been transported to court from where he was held.
On November 5, he appeared before Judge Shannon Faherty. Representing the People of California was San Bernardino County Deputy district Attorney Jonathan Robbins. Saldivar was represented by Deputy Public Defender Andrew Moll.
Saldivar pleaded not guilty to the murder, four assault with a semi-automatic fire on a person, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, evading a peace officer with wanton disregard for safety, false imprisonment and battery on a former spouse charges and denying the special allegations accompanying seven of those charges.
Judge Faherty confirmed the public defender’s office as his legal representative. She then set his pre-preliminary hearing and for confirmation of counsel for November 10 at 8:30 am in Department R18 at the Rancho Cucamonga Courthouse before Judge Maggie Yang. He is also scheduled to be denied bail at that hearing. Judge Faherty scheduled his preliminary hearing for November 12 at 8:30 am, also before Judge Maggie Yang.