The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Questions remain about killing of San Diego officer
SAN DIEGO — San Diego police are trying to determine whether a shooting that killed a veteran officer and wounded another was a deliberate attack.
Jonathan DeGuzman, a 16-year veteran of the force, died Thursday night when a gunfight erupted after he and his partner stopped someone on a street in a blue-collar area of town.
Hours later, a trail of blood led to a wounded suspect who remained hospitalized Saturday in critical condition, while a second man described only as a potential suspect was captured after an hourslong SWAT standoff Friday.
The death of DeGuzman, 43, came as departments around the country are on high alert following the killing of officers this month in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La.
The chain of events started about 11 p.m. Thursday when DeGuzman and fellow officer Wade Irwin, 32, stopped someone in a southeastern San Diego neighborhood, although it wasn’t immediately clear whether the officers, part of a gang suppression unit, stopped a pedestrian or a car, police said.
Almost immediately a shootout ensued and the officers called for backup.
Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said it was unknown whether the attack was premeditated. She also said video was recovered from the officers’ body cameras.
DeGuzman died at a hospital. Irwin, a nine-year veteran who had joined the gang suppression unit in June, underwent surgery and is expected to recover.
Police swarmed the neighborhood where the shootout happened. About a half-hour after the shooting, they followed a trail of blood to a ravine and found Jesse Gomez, 52, with a chest wound.
Police gave no further information about Gomez or his role in the shootout except to say he was a suspect.
About nine hours after the shootout, heavily armed officers surrounded a house about a half-mile away, one of them using a loudspeaker to urge a man they believed as inside to surrender. But he apparently wasn’t there, and also wasn’t in a house that about a dozen heavily armed SWAT officers surrounded about two blocks away.
Marcus Antonio Cassani, 41, was finally found several blocks away and arrested on an Anaheim warrant.
Zimmerman said police were investigating whether Cassani, who has a criminal record that includes drug, weapons and burglary convictions, had any role in the police shootings.
Zimmerman told reporters that she went to DeGuzman’s home to tell his wife and two children of his death.
“I can tell you he is a loving, caring husband, father. Talked about his family all the time,” she said.