Authorities Thursday released dispatch audiotapes and video footage of a Rancho Penasquitos-area police shooting that left a gun- wielding domestic violence suspect hospitalized with a non-fatal bullet wound.
The events that led to the law enforcement gunfire began shortly before 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14, when a woman called 911 to report that her husband, whom she identified as 61-year-old Richard Young of San Diego, was drunk and harassing her at their home in the 8500 block of Celtic Court, according to police.
“I simply want (him) to leave the room that I’m in,” she is heard telling a dispatcher on a recording of the call.
Young then can be heard making defiant remarks in the background of the call, including more refusals to leave the room, before threatening to force police to shoot him by pulling an unloaded gun on them.
Young’s wife, in response to a question from the dispatcher, confirmed that her husband owned a gun, though she said it was “in storage” and insisted that he was “not going to do anything.”
After patrol personnel arrived at the couple’s home near Black Mountain Open Space Park, took up positions around it and began making a plan to address the volatile situation, the 911 operator heard what sounded like a struggle over the woman’s still-open phone line, SDPD Lt. Matt Dobbs said.
A short time later, officers saw that Young and his wife had come out of their house and were sitting on their front porch. The personnel then moved in, and as one officer pulled Young’s wife away from him, several others grabbed him and dragged him out of his chair.
At that point, in images shot by an officer’s body-worn camera, Young can be seen pulling a pistol tucked into the back of his waistband. Seeing the weapon, another officer fires a single round at the suspect’s midsection, sending Young collapsing to the ground.
Young was admitted to a trauma center for treatment of a non-life- threatening gunshot wound to the abdomen. He remained hospitalized this afternoon, Dobbs said.
The SDPD Homicide Unit and the department’s internal-affairs division are investigating the case, as is standard protocol in instances of officer- involved shootings. The District Attorney’s Office ultimately will determine if the officer who fired on Young acted within the bounds of the law in his use of potentially lethal force.
— City News Service