MAN WITH GUN SHOT BY DEPUTY AT VISTA CHURCH
Suspect reportedly had held gun to his head; shot in legs outside
A sheriff’s deputy shot and wounded a 77-year-old man who had pointed a gun at his own head at a church in Vista on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Family members called 911 and reported that the armed man was inside Iglesia Ni Cristo on Calle Jules, north of East Bobier Drive, around 12:30 p.m., said San Diego police acting Lt. Jon Dungan.
The San Diego Police Department is investigating in accordance with a protocol that keeps agencies from investigating shootings by their own officers or deputies.
Dungan said he believes a service was taking place when the incident unfolded.
When deputies arrived, members of the church were inside with the man. As deputies tried to gather more information, they saw the man walk out, with a gun in his right hand, Dungan said.
Deputies instructed him to drop the gun, but he did not comply and instead walked toward deputies in the church parking lot, Dungan said.
The deputies backed up and repeated their commands, but the man “continued advancing ” in the lot, he said.
A deputy ultimately fired a round from a rifle, striking the man in his legs, Dungan said.
No other details about what led up to the shooting were immediately available. Dungan said it was too early to say whether the incident was a suicide-by-cop attempt, in which a suicidal person tries to provoke a law enforcement
officer to use deadly force.
Deputies applied tourniquets to the man’s legs, and paramedics took him to a hospital. The man, whose name was not released, was expected to survive, Dungan said.
The deputy who shot the man has worked for the Sheriff’s Department for three years. His name was not released.
After the investigation, the county District Attorney’s Office will review the case, as is protocol, to determine whether the deputy should face criminal charges.
Anyone with information about the incident was asked to call the San Diego