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A 19-year-old San Jose man involved in a domestic incident was shot to death by a police officer Monday evening outside an apartment complex in Gilroy, police reported.
The first officer on the scene shot Hector Alvarez outside his ex-girlfriend’s apartment on Filbro Street just south of Gilroy High School, said Gilroy Police Capt. Joseph Deras at a press conference Tuesday. Police said Alvarez charged at the Gilroy police officer within 90 seconds of his arrival, and the officer reacted in self defense.
The officer, a four-year veteran, was not injured.
Alvarez’s estranged girlfriend, with whom he has a child and who is pregnant with a second, disputed the police account. Her mother, speaking for her, said Alvarez had his hands up and was complying with the officer’s requests.
In a press release, police said officers arrived at the apartment complex within four minutes of the call around 7 p.m. after a neighbor called 911 and reported hearing a violent commotion, Deras said. The neighbor reported that the woman had been hiding from the man, who grabbed her by the hair once he found her, he said.
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The man emerged from the woman’s upstairs apartment and confronted the officer, Deras said. He made threatening gestures indicating he had a weapon, Deras added.
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The police are conducting a homicide investigation. Detectives will review the body camera worn by the officer.
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The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is monitoring the police investigation, Deras said. An attorney and a detective for the district attorney were present as the officer was interviewed after the shooting.
The police department can release footage from the body camera only with permission from the district attorney, Deras said.
The outside wall of a downstairs apartment was hit by at least one stray bullet. A bullet hole was visible inches from the door.
The police are trained to consider both the safety of bystanders and the need to eliminate a threat, Deras said.
“You certainly don’t want to be putting rounds into somebody’s home when there might be people there who are threatened,” Deras said. “On the other hand, he needed to make a decision immediately.”
The officer is on paid administrative leave pending completion of the investigation.
“Based on the suspect’s actions and the information the officer was given regarding the domestic violence disturbance and all other circumstances considered the officer believed he was facing a lethal encounter and fired his weapon,” Gilroy Police said in a press release.
The officer was armed with a Taser but did not use it, Deras said. Whether to use nonlethal force is left an officer’s discretion in each situation, he said.
“It’s always an option, but depending on the threat that you’re facing, the distance you have, and all the circumstances that you’re aware of—in this case, a violent felony is occurring, that might not be an option.“
Officers gave the victim medical assistance before medics arrived, however, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The woman’s mother spoke to the Dispatch outside her apartment and disputed the police version. She said her daughter, the alleged battery victim, was too distraught to speak. She said her daughter’s ex-boyfriend had his arms raised and was complying with the officer’s commands before the shooting. The mother, who wouldn’t identify herself, didn’t witness the shooting.
The man turned around after being shot the first time and walked back toward the stairs, the mother said. He collapsed in front of the stairs after being shot again, she added.
The ex-girlfriend, who had been standing at the top of the stairs and witnessed the remaining shots, confronted police, Deras said. Police removed the woman from the scene, he said.
The mother said her daughter told her that there was no physical altercation. A downstairs neighbor, however, said the noise upstairs sounded violent.
Across the street, neighbors Kerri Mammini and her brother David, who declined to give his last name, heard the shooting, but didn’t see anything. They said they heard the ex-girlfriend scream, “Why did you do that? Why did you do that?” after three shots had been fired.
