Ex-officer confirmed as suspect in shooting
Fresno man, 42, arrested after a police confrontation on a Gilroy High baseball field
GILROY >> A Fresno man who was shot at by police during a violent confrontation on a Gilroy High School baseball field Sunday was confirmed to be a former Hollister police officer who served in the mid-2000s, authorities said.
Chad Browning, 42, has been charged with felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and auto theft, and misdemeanor counts of petty theft and meth possession. He is being held in the Santa Clara County Main Jail on $250,000 bail.
Browning was an officer with the Hollister Police Department from 2002 to 2007, Hollister Sgt. Don Pershall said Tuesday. He declined to comment further on Browning’s time with the agency, citing personnel privacy restrictions.
According to news articles published during his tenure, Browning was among the department’s first officers to deploy a Taser in the field, and garnered some notoriety in 2005 when he reportedly hit a pedestrian with his patrol vehicle and was initially believed to be at fault for failing to yield.
On Sunday, Browning was the subject of a statewide law-enforcement alert identifying him as a suspect in the theft of a white SUV in Fresno, and described as a safety risk, partly on the grounds he recently tried to obtain a gun from a family member.
Around 1 p.m. the same day, Gilroy emergency dis-
patchers reportedly got a call from Browning on a borrowed cell phone in which he gave them a convoluted story, stating that the person who reported the original vehicle theft had been kidnapped, and that the vehicle in question was stolen from him in Gilroy.
He reprotedly dropped the call and drove away, effectively stealing the cell phone from the person who loaned it to him. He called police again and “made mention of athletic games taking place at the Gilroy High School campus and his desire to fight with police officers,” according
to Gilroy police. A Pop Warner fifth- and sixth-grade youth football tournament was being held there.
When Browning showed up on the campus, he eventually drove onto a baseball field adjacent to the football field where the youth event was taking place. Parents and game staff closed gates and sheltered the children, and at one point, police said a parent jumped into the vehicle and tried to stop Browning.
Officers sealed off Browning’s exit path, and soon after the suspect drove at an officer on foot, police said. The officer, apparently penned in by fencing as the vehicle approached, fired at least one shot at the oncoming SUV. That reportedly caused Browning to lose control of the vehicle, and he surrendered.
No injuries were reported. Gilroy police said in a news release that Browning was cooperative after his arrest, but gave detectives an “incoherent” explanation for his alleged acts.
The officer who opened fire was placed on paid administrative leave while Gilroy police and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation, which is routine after an officerinvolved shooting in the county.
Anyone with information about the case for Gilroy police can contact 408846-0350 or leave an anonymous tip at 800-782-7463.