Man wielding machete killed by Vallejo cops after car chase

A 45-year-old Benicia man was fatally shot by five Vallejo police officers Wednesday evening when he raised a machete over his head and advanced toward them after a high-speed chase, officials said.

The man was identified as Jeffrey Barboa, the father of a 4-year-old boy, according to family members.

“We don’t know what to do. He wasn’t a bad guy, he had never even been in trouble,” Barboa’s 73-year-old mother, Mary Barboa of Albuquerque, told The Chronicle in a telephone interview Thursday.

Mary Barboa said she hasn’t heard from the Vallejo Police Department. She was able to confirm her son’s death from his estranged wife, whom police contacted to identify Jeffrey Barboa’s body.

Officers attempted to stop Barboa’s car at 5:05 p.m. Wednesday in connection with an armed robbery that occurred July 26 in El Cerrito, said Vallejo police Lt. Jeff Bassett.

Barboa sped off, leading officers on a 15-minute chase that ended in Richmond, Bassett said.

A police vehicle rammed the man’s car and prompted Barboa to stop and exit his vehicle about 5:20 p.m. on the 3400 block of Richmond Parkway, said Lt. Felix Tan, spokesman for the Richmond Police Department.

The man “advanced on the officers with a machete raised overhead,” Bassett added.

Barboa ignored commands to drop the machete, prompting five officers to open fire, hitting him multiple times, Bassett said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mary Barboa said her son grew up in Albuquerque, where he was known for being an artist and loved to skateboard. Jeffrey Barboa moved to California about a decade ago, where he received a doctorate degree in psychology.

She said her son had recently filed for divorce and was locked in a child custody battle with his estranged wife. She said her son had reached a boiling point when he thought he had lost custody of his young son.

“He was a good son, a good father with a kind heart, a big heart, a loving person,” Mary Barboa said, weeping over the phone. “He always had a smile on his face, he was always laughing.”

She said she last heard from him in a text message shortly before he was killed Wednesday evening. She said her son texted that his son was gone forever and that he, too, would soon be gone.

“She thought what he meant was that he was going to move away and that he was just going to leave” California, said Ebony Chavez, Jeffrey Barboa’s 30-year-old cousin.

“He used to tell his son that no matter what would happen that he would always come back for him,” Chavez added.

The incident is being investigated by the Richmond Police Department and the Contra Costa County district attorney’s office.

It was the fourth officerinvolved shooting by the Vallejo Police Department in 2017.

The shooting comes less than a month after a police officer fired his gun July 8 at a suspected carjacker at the intersection of Santa Clara and Alabama streets in Vallejo. Surveillance video obtained by The Chronicle showed the officer fired at least three shots at the suspect, Victor Hurtado, 32, of Napa County, as he attempted to run away, but did not hit him.

On May 31, Vallejo police shot Kevin DeCarlo, a 20-yearold man wanted on a felony warrant, multiple times after he was cornered in Martinez and attempted to evade arrest by ramming a patrol car, police said. DeCarlo survived the shooting.

On Jan. 23, police fatally shot 21-year-old Angel Ramos, who got into a fight with a teenager during a house party, officials said. When police arrived to the scene, they came upon a 6-foot-2, 250-pound 16-year-old boy who was in a “mutual combat situation” with Ramos on a second-story back deck, Bassett said.

“He was a good son, a good father with a kind heart, a big heart, a loving person. He always had a smile on his face, he was always laughing.” Mary Barboa, 73, slain man’s mother describing son