SHERIFF’S VIDEO SHOWS SHOOTING OF MAN
Deputy opened fire as man charged at him with bed frame
Newly released bodyworn camera video shows a sheriff ’s deputy shooting a man armed with a metal bed frame who investigators said charged at the deputy in Spring Valley last month.
The video released Friday shows Deputy Benjamin Blake shoot Santo Marac, 45, multiple times around 7:30 p.m. on April 26 at a home on Barcelona Street, just north of state Route 94, in the Casa de Oro area of Spring Valley.
Marac survived his injuries. He was arrested in connection with the incident, and pleaded not guilty May 1 in Superior Court to felony charges including assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest with violence and making criminal threats.
Blake has been employed by the San Diego Sheriff’s Department for approximately a year and a half, authorities said. He is assigned to the Rancho San Diego Sheriff ’s Station.
The video released by the Sheriff’s Department provides images from the body cameras worn by Blake and Deputy Stephen McCarthy on the night of the shooting.
The beginning of the video shows Blake standing in a lit hallway, flanked by two other deputies. A man identified as Marac is standing in a dark bathroom at the end of the hallway holding the metal bar.
“Drop that, drop that, you’re not in trouble,” Blake tells Marac in the video, referring to the metal bed frame. “We’re just here to talk to you.”
Blake, with his gun drawn, asks Marac to drop the metal frame in the bathtub, the video shows.
Marac gives an inaudible response, the video shows.
“We’re going to make sure you’re safe,” Blake says, later adding: “You need to drop that.”
Text in the Sheriff ’s Department video reads that Blake and the other deputies are trying to “establish rapport” with Marac. Blake offers to call mental health resources, friends or family for the man.
“What would you like us to do?” Blake asks in the vi
deo. “How can I help you?”
Blake asks what Marac might have in the room with him, the video shows. Marac continues to respond but his words are difficult to hear on the video.
“What is in there? I’m concerned for my safety. … I don’t want to get hurt, I want to go home,” Blake says to Marac.
As Blake continues to speak with Marac, McCarthy moves down the hallway closer to Marac. McCarthy is armed with a Taser and he fires at Marac in the bathroom.
“Easy, easy,” Blake says as McCarthy fires the Taser. Investigators confirmed later that the Taser barbs stuck into Marac but appeared to have no effect.
A few seconds after Marac is shot with the Taser, he comes out of the bathroom and moves toward deputies with the metal bed frame raised over his head, the video shows.
Blake fires three times,
the video shows. Marac falls to the ground.
A portion of the video in slow motion shows Marac coming out of the bathroom at Blake and McCarthy with a metal bar investigators later determined was a piece of a bed frame.
Next, the video shows McCarthy’s body camera footage. Deputies ask if the rooms along the hallway have been checked.
Seconds later, McCarthy uses the Taser and Blake opens fire, the video shows.
“Shots fired!” one of the deputies yells. “Hands, hands, hands!”
The body camera footage concludes with deputies detaining Marac before he’s loaded into an ambulance, the video shows.
Blake has been placed on administrative duty until he is cleared to return to full duty, according to the Sheriff ’s Department.
After the San Diego Police Department completes its investigation of the incident, the county District Attorney’s Office will review it — as it does all shootings involving law enforcement — to determine whether the deputies bear any criminal liability.
The Sheriff’s Department will conduct an internal administrative investigation, officials said, and the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board is expected to review the incident as well.
Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call the homicide unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.