Police shooting victim allegedly fired first
A man who was fatally shot by police in Fremont on Sunday night fired at officers from atop a box truck before he was killed, officials said.
The man has been identified as 24-year-old Roger Perez of Orinda, according to the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau.
Perez is the third person to be shot and killed by officers from the Fremont Police Department this year.
Fremont Police Chief Richard Lucero described cases in which officers must use lethal force as “very difficult” but said the three recent fatal shootings by his officers were all “very different,” with one key similarity.
“What they have in common is that they all involve very dangerous violence against officers,” Lucero said.
Fremont police were initially contacted around 11:30 p.m. Sunday when an officer from the East Bay Regional Parks District Police called for an emergency response to the parking lot of a 7-Eleven on Decoto Road and Fremont Boulevard, where occupants of a vehicle allegedly had a firearm, police said.
Perez held a handgun as he fled the vehicle and ran across Fremont Boulevard to the area behind a Walgreens, according to police.
When responding officers spotted Perez “on top of a box truck,” he opened fire on them, prompting two officers to return fire, according to Officer Michael Gilfoy, a spokesman for the Fremont Police Department.
A gun was found “in close proximity” to Perez, who was pronounced dead at the scene, Gilfoy said.
Law enforcement officials from eight different East Bay agencies swarmed the area during and after the shooting, according to police.
The two officers, whose names have not yet been released, are being represented by Pleasant Hill defense attorney Michael Rains, Gilfoy said.
Rains has represented law enforcement officers in some of the Bay Area’s most highprofile cases related to alleged police misconduct and brutality, including the “Oakland Riders” police misconduct scandal and the case of the “Corcoran eight,” involving correctional officers at the state prison in Corcoran (Kings County) accused of setting up gladiator fights between prison inmates and ultimately acquitted.
Police do not believe there is body camera footage of the shooting because Fremont police officers, other than traffic officers, do not wear body cameras, Gilfoy said.
He added that police vehicles have front-facing cameras on their windshields, but he did not know whether cameras on the officers’ vehicles caught any of the Monday shooting.
Following standard procedure, the two officers are on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, according to Gilfoy.