Cop video shows fatal shooting
A man was shot and killed by Oxnard police this month after he charged at them with a 5-foot metal pole and screamed, “I hate pigs,” according to bodycamera footage released by the department.
Adam Barcenas, 60, was killed March 12 after approaching three officers who were conducting an unrelated DUI traffic stop, police said Friday, when they released the footage.
The shooting unfolded in the 100 block of West 4th Street, according to the Oxnard Police Department.
In the video, Barcenas can be heard screaming profanities at the officers before he appears on screen.
Officers can be seen waving away the man they were speaking to during the traffic stop as Barcenas approaches with the metal pole.
He charges toward the three officers, who tell him to drop the pole. Barcenas continues to move toward the officers, shouting, “I hate pigs” and “I hate you,” the video shows.
Officers Alexus Santos and Bryce Parker drew their stun guns, while Officer
Shayn Schwartz drew his firearm and fired four shots, according to the department.
Three of the shots hit Barcenas in the right leg, left hip and the upper part of his body, police said in a statement.
Santos fired her Taser, but the probes did not break through Barcena’s clothing, investigators said. Parker did not fire his Taser.
Barcenas was not involved in the DUI traffic stop that brought the officers to the sidewalk around 6 a.m., police said.
Officers gave Barcenas first aid until paramedics arrived, according to the department.
He was taken to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead around 8:30 a.m., police said.
No one else was harmed during the incident, which took about 10 seconds to unfold.
Barcenas was found guilty in 2019 of felony elder abuse in connection with separate attacks against a man and a woman, according to the Ventura County district attorney’s office. The woman, Armida Castro, 71, died about a week after one of the attacks, but prosecutors declined to file homicide charges against Barcenas because the death could not be directly linked to the assault due to her “significant pre-existing medical conditions,” the district attorney’s office said.
Barcenas was sentenced to six years in prison for the attacks; it is unclear why he was out of custody this month.
Schwartz and Parker joined the Oxnard Police Department in April, while Santos joined in 2020, the agency said in a statement. None had been involved in a shooting before.
Investigators with the department’s major crimes unit will review the shooting and submit a report to the Ventura County district attorney’s office, Oxnard Police Chief Jason Benites said.
Prosecutors will determine whether the shooting was legally justified, and the Police Department’s Professional Standards Division will determine whether the officers acted within policy, Benites said.
Investigators are asking anyone who witnessed the shooting or has information to contact Det. Meagan Tobey at (805) 385-7755 or meagan.tobey@oxnardpd.org.