Parents question police slaying of homicide suspect
The parents of a Gilroy man shot dead Thursday by San Jose police during an arrest said at a candlelight vigil Saturday evening that they aren’t getting any answers from police about what happened.
“He was just a kid,” David Tovar Sr. said of his son David Jr., before collapsing in tears into the embrace of his wife, Teresa.
The grieving parents said they had contacted San Jose police but heard nothing back. “I need some answers about a lot of things that happened and I haven’t gotten any of them,” Tovar Sr. said. “I don’t know why they shot him.”
Police weren’t saying much about the circumstances of the morning shooting at the Villa Fairlane apartments in San Jose’s east foothills, including whether Tovar Jr., 27, was armed.
But they called Tovar Jr. “an ongoing threat to the public,” who was wanted in connection with a homicide, multiple shootings in Gilroy and Morgan Hill and weapons violations in San Jose.
“We’re dealing with a very, very dangerous individual here,” San Jose police spokesperson Sgt. Christian Camarillo said at the shooting scene Thursday on La Pala Drive off McKee Road.
David Tovar Sr. said police were wrong about his son. “He was a good kid,” he said. “There’s no facts on any of that. They made him out to look like he’s a bad person. He’s not. He’s my baby.”
Camarillo said the fatal incident unfolded in an outdoor area of the apartment grounds, with multiple officers opening fire after trying to arrest Tovar Jr., who died in the hospital. No officer injuries were reported.
Two people were driven from the scene in the back of police vehicles.
No details have been released about them — such as whether they were detained or questioned — but Camarillo affirmed Tovar Jr. was the person police were seeking.
The killing was the city’s first police shooting of the year.
Last year, officers were involved in five shootings in San Jose, one of them fatal.