DA clears parole agent in Redwood City shooting

Man accosted law enforcement officer with a dumbbell, report says

REDWOOD CITY >> The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office has cleared a state parole agent in the non-fatal shooting of a 30-year-old parolee in Redwood City earlier this year.

Agent Marvin Abad shot parolee Aaron Dennis Womack during a confrontation outside the parole office at 540 Price Ave. in the early morning hours of April 23, according to an eight-page report released by District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe on Tuesday.

The report said Abad was upstairs in his office about 1:30 a.m. when he heard a “loud banging noise” coming from somewhere nearby. He went to investigate and found Womack in the office’s parking garage holding a dumbbell in his right hand. Womack had been living in a makeshift encampment at the garage, according to the report.

A screaming and yelling Womack walked away from Abad and used the weight to punch a door to a building at 550 Price Ave., causing glass to shatter, according to the report.

The report said Womack appeared “agitated and confused” and did not seem to recognize Abad, his parole agent of two years. Abad knew Womack had “severe mental health” issues, but he had peacefully resolved similar situations with him in the past, according to the report.

“Womack repeatedly asked Agent Abad, ‘where did you come from?’” Wagstaffe wrote in the report.

Abad tried to calm Womack down, reminded him that he was his parole officer and asked him to drop the dumbbell, according to the report. Womack instead raised the weight to shoulder height as if preparing to punch something and rushed toward Abad.

Abad, the report said, backed up as Womack approached, the former repeatedly asking the latter to put the dumbbell down and the latter repeatedly asking the former where he had come from. The parole agent eventually drew and fired his service weapon from the hip as Womack closed within five to seven feet of him, according to the report.

“Agent Abad feared for his safety,” Wagstaffe wrote in the report. “He was aware that Womack was on parole for a violent crime (assault with a deadly weapon on an elderly couple), Womack was holding the dumbbell as if he intended to strike Agent Abad over the head with it and Womack was continuing to advance upon him despite repeated orders to stop.”

One of the two rounds Abad fired hit Womack in the left leg near his groin, the report said.

Womack walked away from Abad, who called for help. He was eventually arrested by a combination of Redwood City police officers and San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies, but not before being shot with a stun gun a total of four times, according to the report.

The report said Womack was taken to Stanford Hospital, where he was treated for a non-life-threatening injury and released.

“While being treated, Womack laughed and noted that the Taser hurt more than the gunshot,” Wagstaffe wrote in the report. “He said he learns something new every day.”

The confrontation between Abad and Womack was not recorded, but there were witnesses.

Baron Kauo, a 70-year-old man who lives in the same encampment, told investigators that he woke up to Womack “yelling and going crazy,” the report said. He also reported seeing Womack walk toward Abad with a yellow 5-pound weight in his hand.

Womack appeared to accept being shot.

“He stated that Agent Abad ‘shot me because in my opinion he did the right thing,’” Wagstaffe wrote in the report. “‘He was tripping, and I was tripping, I’m not going to blame him for shooting me. I would have shot me too … too close. I was too close to him.’”

Wagstaffe reached the same conclusion.

“It is apparent that Agent Abad acted lawfully in response to a dangerous and rapidly escalating situation,” he wrote in the report.

“Despite retreating from Womack and making efforts to calm him down, as he had successfully done in the past, Womack continued to advance on him wielding a dumbbell in a threatening manner,” he continued. “Agent Abad shot in self defense when he subjectively, and reasonably, feared that he had no other option available to protect himself from serious bodily harm.”