Man shot by police struggled mentally

Officer who opened fire last week also involved in deadly police shooting in May

SAN JOSE >> A man who was fatally shot by police last week after allegedly brandishing a replica of a handgun had a history of mental health struggles and had tried several times in the past to induce officers to shoot him, including one time in April, according to authorities and court records.

Francis Calonge, 33, of San Jose, died Thursday on North Jackson Avenue just north of McKee Road, a few blocks from his apartment near Regional Medical Center.

San Jose police said Tuesday that the officer who opened fire on Calonge, Edward Carboni, also was one of three officers who were involved in a fatal police shooting May 4.

In that incident, Carboni fired at a suspect in a stolen car who dragged a police sergeant across an East San Jose carport.

Carboni has been with SJPD for a year and has been in law enforcement about four years.

Chief Eddie Garcia said that Carboni opened fire as Calonge was walking toward Independence High School as it was letting out, and that six students were walking in his direction.

“With the officer’s fear of the individual getting closer to a high school, with the backdrop of all that’s been going on in this country with active shooters,” Garcia said, “the officer felt that he had to react quickly.”

Jonathan Tapiru, 34, who said he has known Calonge since they both attended Milpitas High School, said he had seen Calonge as recently as last week.

Tapiru and other longtime friends of Calonge’s said he struggled with mental health issues that included depression.

They said they were shocked by his death and described him as laid back and easy to get along with.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” said Tapiru, of San Jose. “I knew he was depressed, but I didn’t know what was going on in his head.”

Calonge was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest April 20 after someone reported seeing him walking along North Jackson Avenue near Madden Avenue, about two blocks from his home, holding a large kitchen knife in his right hand.

A police officer who responded ordered him to drop the knife, but Calonge

instead “pulled out a pack of cigarettes and (began) smoking,” the police report said.

When the officer threatened to shoot him with a bean bag gun, Calonge threw down the knife and surrendered.

Officer Ian Braun wrote in the report that Calonge said “he would have held onto the knife until the police killed him, but decided to put it down when I told him we would shoot him with the stun bag.”

Police wrote that Calonge was then put on a 72-hour psychiatric hold, and Garcia said Calonge had been placed on six previous such holds.

In May 2017, Calonge was given probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of exhibiting a deadly weapon and resisting arrest on Oct. 30, 2016.

Garcia said Calonge’s family reported that he left home with a knife and “threatened suicide by cop.”

On Thursday afternoon, almost exactly three years later, someone called police to the 2300 block of McKee Road near Jackson Avenue after Calonge was reported holding a handgun in front of a 24-Hour Fitness and walking erratically through the shopping plaza parking lot.

Police said officers “gave the suspect verbal commands to stop and drop the gun,” but Calonge reportedly defied them and put the replica gun in his waistband.

Police officials and officers at the scene have both contended that the man “appeared to be drawing his gun.”

As the man walked toward Independence High at 2:32 p.m. — six minutes after the initial sighting of the gun — an officer reported into his radio, “Shots fired. Shots fired. … He was reaching for the gun.”

Police said Tuesday that Calonge was walking on the west side of North Jackson Avenue and that Carboni was about 120 feet southeast of him, standing in the center median, when he shot Calonge.

Calonge died at a hospital soon after.

Garcia said an autopsy indicated that Calonge was under the influence of methamphetamine when he died.

A day after the shooting, police announced that Calonge was carrying a replica handgun designed to look like a Beretta pistol.

Tapiru said that in previous conversations, Calonge had mentioned wanting to buy a pellet gun, and that he tried to talk him out of it.

“I told him, ‘You don’t need that, what do you need that for?’” Tapiru said.

The circumstances in which Calonge died are part of a growing trend in the South Bay and throughout the state.

According to a Santa Clara County civil grand jury report last year, nearly 40% of police shootings in the county from 2013 to 2017 involved a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

“This incident and loss of life are examples of the tremendous need for additional mental health services, drug treatment and intervention in our community,” Garcia said.

The county has launched a series of programs to help tackle the issue, including establishing two mobile crisis-response teams, one in East San Jose and one in South County, consisting of two mental health professionals who can respond to emergencies at the request of dispatchers or police officers.

Police also confirmed that for the second time this year, Carboni has been placed on paid administrative leave while SJPD homicide detectives and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office conduct a routine shooting investigation.