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A California police officer who opened fire on a suspect with a pending warrant struck and “tragically” killed an innocent passerby instead, authorities said on Sunday.
The shooting, which is under investigation by state prosecutors due to recent law enforcement reforms, took place on Saturday evening in Guadalupe, a small coastal town about three hours north of Los Angeles, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Neither the suspect nor the officer from the Guadalupe Police Department were immediately identified.
The sheriff’s office said Juan Luis Olvera-Preciado, 59, was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 10 p.m. local time.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, which is involved in the investigation, did not immediately provide details of what sparked the shooting, but said more information would be released pending further investigation. investigation.
The statement said officers saw the suspect, wanted on a felony warrant without bail, one block east of the main thoroughfare in Guadalupe.
One of the officers shot the suspect but struck Olvera-Preciado, who was sitting in his car nearby. The statement said he was “not involved” in the meeting and died “tragically”.
The sheriff’s office did not specify the charges against the suspect. The person attended the scene and no one else was injured, the statement said.
The shooting was reported to the attorney general’s office under a new law that requires prosecutors to investigate deadly uses of force against unarmed civilians.
When Governor Gavin Newsom announced the legislation last year, he described it as one in a series of new state laws aimed at reforming law enforcement practices that had been criticized by the Police accountability campaigners in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 murder.
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