Authorities Wednesday released video footage of a police shooting that left a man wounded six weeks ago during an auto-theft investigation at a San Ysidro residential complex.
The events that led to the non-fatal law enforcement gunfire began at about 7 a.m. on July 29, when an automated license-plate-reading system located a suspected stolen car in the 1500 block of Smythe Avenue, west of Interstate 805 and just south of state Route 905, according to the San Diego Police Department.
A short time later, SDPD Officer Ricardo Zambrano found the silver Honda Accord in question at an apartment complex near the intersection of Beyer and Del Sur boulevards. As the lawman turned into a driveway on the grounds of the complex, the Honda, occupied by two men, was a short distance away and approaching the police vehicle.
Zambrano pulled to a stop, activated the flashing lights on his cruiser, shouted at the driver of the Accord to stop the car and then fired a round through its windshield, leaving the passenger with a bullet wound to the shoulder.
Surveillance cameras captured video images of the shooting, which took place as a pedestrian was walking on a sidewalk in the complex just behind the Accord.
Zambrano was wearing a uniform-mounted camera when he opened fire, but the device was not activated, according to police.
Officers took both occupants of the Honda into custody, and paramedics transported the wounded man to a hospital. Both detainees have since been questioned and released without charges, though the reported auto theft remains under investigation.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting under terms of a multi-agency regional agreement designed to prevent conflicts of interest in such cases. The District Attorney’s Office ultimately will decide if Zambrano, an eight-year member of the SDPD, was legally justified in opening fire on the car.
