Authorities on Thursday released the names of the South Bay officer who shot and killed a homeless man who had been seen threatening another man last weekend.
The suspect has been identified by San Diego police as Perri Sammarco, 37, who died at a local hospital Monday.
The officer, Alfonso Perdomo, has been employed by the Chula Vista Police Department for approximately five years. He is currently assigned as a canine handler.
The victim, Justin Holley, 34, lives on the street in Chula Vista. He was treated at a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries to his neck. The victim did not know the suspect until the day of the incident, when the suspect threatened him and forced him to come to an apartment complex on Moss Street, police said.
Perdomo shot Sammarco Saturday after Chula Vista police responded at about 7:45 p.m. Saturday to the 600 block of Moss regarding multiple calls of two people believed to be setting up camp in an apartment stairwell.
Sammarco is accused of holding a knife to Holley’s neck in front of officers. He was shot in the head, investigators said, as he continued yelling at the officers, threatening to kill the hostage and refusing to cooperate.
Perdomo and a team of other officers climbed through a balcony to enter an apartment near the suspect. The canine officer unlocked and cracked the apartment door open and at that point fired his department-issued rifle, striking the suspect in the head.
Per a countywide Memorandum of Understanding, the San Diego Police Homicide Unit responded to the scene to conduct the investigation of the officer-involved shooting.