A preliminary hearing was postponed Thursday until Dec. 12 for a man shot by a San Diego police officer when he allegedly threatened to commit suicide and waved a pistol at people at Mission Bay Park.
Lance Tamayo, 45, is charged with exhibiting a firearm in the presence of peace officers. He faces three years and eight months in prison, if convicted.
Tamayo called police from the 2800 block of North Mission Bay Drive shortly after 11 a.m. Aug. 6 and told dispatchers that he was going to shoot himself, according to San Diego police Sgt. Manuel Del Toro.
Officers arrived to find Tamayo sitting in his car in a parking area near De Anza Cove. They called him on his cell phone and spoke with him for about 15 minutes before he agreed to surrender, Del Toro said.
Tamayo then allegedly got out of his car but returned to it and grabbed a loaded 9 mm pistol. He then “pointed his gun recklessly at various people in the park,” at a police helicopter overhead, and at the nearby officers, prompting Officer Michael Weaver to shoot the suspect in the stomach, wounding him, the sergeant said.
The preliminary hearing will enable a judge to decide whether there are grounds to order Tamayo to stand trial.
—City News Service
