DA's Office investigates a police shooting
A 35-year-old man Santa Cruz police opened fire on over the weekend remained jailed Monday, suspected of brandishing a fake gun.
George Jaynes, booked Saturday under the same case number listed for the shooting, was being held at the Santa Cruz County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail. Along with the misdemeanor gun brandishing, Jaynes was suspected of making felony threats and of misdemeanor loitering, according to county jail logs. As of Monday, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office had not yet filed any formal charges against Jaynes.
Santa Cruz Police Department officers reportedly fired at Jaynes, who was located inside a vehicle, shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday on a Carbonera Creek neighborhood cul-de-sac. Two officers discharged their firearms, according to the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office, which is investigating the police shooting. Neither Jaynes nor any officers were injured during the shooting, according to a department media release.
The department's armored BearCat tactical vehicle, along with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office drones, provided backup during the call, according to a police spokesperson and police radio dispatch recordings.
Santa Cruz Police Department representatives on Monday referred questions related to the shooting, including what specific circumstances led up to officers opening fire on Jaynes, to the District Attorney's Office. Police spokesperson Joyce Blaschke, however, said that the agency was “following policy and protocol to the T.”
According to the department's policy manual, posted online at cityofsantacruz.com, the District Attorney's Office is responsible for the criminal investigation into the circumstances of any officerinvolved shooting or death. Under the manual's officer-involved shooting header, the document notes that “Each involved SCPD officer shall be given reasonable paid administrative leave following an officer-involved shooting or death.” The relevant policy falls under a header titled “Investigation Process,” where its contents are characterized as “guidelines.”
Per policy, the department's Professional Standards Unit will conduct a separate internal administrative investigation of the officers' conduct. Results of that investigation will be placed in the officers' confidential personnel file, according to the manual.
Officers initially were called at 5:49 a.m. to the 300 block of Lee Street on Saturday after a resident reported that a man had come into her backyard and pointed a gun at her. The caller directed police to a vehicle that she said she believed was associated with the intruder. In subsequent police radio dispatches, officers announced “shots fired” at 5:53 a.m., four minutes after the original emergency call was broadcast. By 5:56 a.m., an officer on the scene reported that a gun was being thrown out of a vehicle, which was occupied by one man.