Man accused of accidentally shooting at deputies in vigilantism

STOCKTON, Calif. (KCRA) – Authorities in California say a man's attempt at vigilantism led to him accidentally shooting at police officers.

This all happened last Thursday in San Joaquin County.

Officers initially responded to an alarm at the Pick-n-Pull store on Clark Drive in Stockton around 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

“Three people were running from the store through the yard, and so we set up a cordon around the store, put our drone in the air, sent our K-9s in and tried to catch the bad guys that were there trying to steal stuff said San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow.

As deputies took their posts, a man who lives in the area called his grandson and said he saw three men running across his porch.

“So he came with his assault rifle on a golf cart to help his grandfather who had called him and said there were bad guys in his house,” Withrow explained.

The sheriff says that was the suspect's first mistake.

“Neither the grandfather nor he called the police and said, 'Hey, look.' “Someone is at my grandfather's house and I'm going there to protect my grandfather out of fear for his safety,” Withrow added.

The man then encountered the people he thought were the pick-n-pull suspects, but were actually deputies.

“Suddenly someone started shooting at them from behind and luckily both officers were near a concrete cylinder wall,” Withrow said.

The suspect fired two shots before officers were able to identify himself.

“Instead of immediately returning fire, they loudly shouted the order to drop the weapon, which fortunately the subject did immediately,” the sheriff added.

The suspect was taken into custody and no one was injured during the situation.

“Fortunately, this is currently neither murder nor attempted murder. He is charged with assault with a deadly weapon,” Withrow said.

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