Officer cleared in fatal shooting of mentally ill man

New county-police initiatives focus on improving first-response interactions

SANJOSE >> A San Jose police officer was deemed legally justified when he shot and killed a violently mentally ill man who charged at him with a knife during a frantic encounter in front of the man’s home last year, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

Joseph Tourino, 28, died the night of May 2 in front of his family’s home on Mt. Frazier Drive after police were called for reports of a father and son fighting, with both of them calling 911.

Officer Mario Martinez was one of the first officers to respond to the call, and was rushed by a pit bull as soon as he got out of his patrol car, then caught the sight of a man running at him, prosecutors said in a report on the shooting released Wednesday.

The advancing man, identified as Tourino, was holding a knife raised in his right hand and another knife in his left hand, according to the report and previous police accounts.

A backpedaling Martinez fired three shots at Tourino, hitting him once, authorities said. According to prosecutors’ Wednesday report, audio from Martinez’s body cam captured some of Tourino’s last words, including the statement, “It’s not your fault, officer. I wanted this … I hate myself.”

Tourino died hours later at a local hospital.

“Of f icer Mar t inez clearly had a genuine and reasonable belief that the decedent intended to stab and kill him with the knives and presented him with an obvious and imminent threat,” wrote supervising deputy district attorney Steven Dal Porto in the report. “The decedent’s declaration disturbingly underscores the decedent’s intention to bring about his own death through the very means by which it occurred.”

Tourino had long battled mental illness that often led to violent outbursts, his father told this news organization last fall. He was in and out of psychiatric facilities while his father and other family members tried desperately to get him admitted into a long- term residential treatment program, to no avail.

A couple of weeks before he was shot by police, Tourino, who had a chronicled past of suicidal behavior, tried to hang himself from a tree in his father’s front yard. Police also had a history of responding to calls involving Tourino.

The shooting also came amid renewed attention to efforts to bolster police officers who are increasingly becoming first- responders tomental-health crises. That includes new county initiatives to link officers more closely to clinicians with the aim of addressing mental-health issues before they escalate to violence.