Ex-cop arrested after officer fires at vehicle on baseball field

GILROY >> A Gilroy police officer shot at a former cop wanted in a Fresno vehicle theft after the suspect allegedly tried to run him down Sunday in a wild confrontation near a youth football event where hundreds of children were playing.

Miraculously, there were no injuries reported from the nerve-wracking encounter on the Gilroy High School baseball field, which ended with the arrest of 42-year-old Fresno resident Chad Browning. Police say Browning was angling to goad officers into a fight and menacingly referenced the Pop Warner fifth- and sixth-grade tournament at the adjacent football stadium.

Browning was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail, where he is being held on $250,000 bail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, auto theft, and meth possession. Gilroy police said in a news release that Browning was cooperative after his arrest, but gave detectives a confusing explanation for his alleged acts.

“Mr. Browning offered his reasoning for his conduct although much of it was incoherent and did not rise to any legal standard that would shield him from prosecution,” police said.

Police added that Browning had no ties to the high school or the Pop Warner program, and that his law-enforcement experience was not in Fresno.

State pension records and archived news articles indicate that a man with the same name was a police officer in Hollister in the mid-2000s. Hollister Police Department officials did not respond to inquiries Monday about whether the Gilroy suspect once worked for them.

Browning first captured the attention of Gilroy police Sunday morning through a statewide bulletin alerting law-enforcement to the theft of a white SUV in Fresno. The alert also stated that the suspect, identified as Browning, had recently tried to obtain a gun from a family member.

Around 1 p.m., Browning reportedly borrowed a cell phone from a stranger and called Gilroy police dispatchers and gave them a convoluted story, stating that the person who reported the original vehicle theft had been kidnapped, and that the vehicle in question was stolen from him in Gilroy.

When dispatchers asked for specific details, police say Browning dropped the call then drove away, taking off with the cell phone from the person who let him borrow it. He then called police again and “made mention of athletic games taking place at the Gilroy High

School campus and his desire to fight with police officers,” police said.

Responding officers spotted the suspect driving on an unattended baseball field next to the football stadium where the youth games were being held, police said, adding that parents at the football event closed the field gates and sheltered in place. One parent tried to intervene, police said.

“One parent jumped into this stolen car and tried to detain this man for the police,” Gilroy police Capt. Joseph Deras told KPIX.

Officers sealed off Browning’s path out of the field, and at some point the suspect drove at an officer who was on foot, police said. The officer, who was apparently penned in by surrounding fencing, fired at the oncoming vehicle, police said.

“As the officer arrived, he

was on foot and started to make his way down the service entrance,” Deras said. “At the same time the suspect came driving out at a high-rate of speed from that area directly toward the officer.”

The gunfire, police said, caused Browning to lose control of his vehicle, and soon after he surrendered.

The officer who opened fire was placed on paid administrative leave while

Gilroy police and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation, which is routine after an officerinvolved shooting in the county.

While acknowledging the potentially risky situation in which the officer opened fire — an area with a sizable crowd nearby — the police department supported the officer’s decision making.

“The officer was aware of the risks in the area and knew his backdrop was clear of any other people, minimizing risks to those uninvolved in the incident,” police said.

Anyone with information about the case for Gilroy police can contact 408846-0350 or leave an anonymous tip at 800-782-7463.