While West Eighth Street residents slept peacefully in their
beds early Thursday morning, Peter Valdez aimed his gun point-blank
at the head of a Gilroy police officer and pulled the trigger.
Gilroy
While West Eighth Street residents slept peacefully in their beds early Thursday morning, Peter Valdez aimed his gun point-blank at the head of a Gilroy police officer and pulled the trigger.
Luckily for Officer John Ballard, Valdez’s semi-automatic, medium-caliber handgun, loaded with live ammunition, malfunctioned and did not fire, most likely saving Ballard’s life, according to Sgt. Jim Gillio.
It all began when Ballard noticed Valdez, 28, riding his bicycle at 3:13 a.m. eastbound on West Eighth Street, near Hanna Street. Ballard noticed Valdez – a convicted felon from Gilroy with no outstanding warrants – was on the wrong side of the road without a headlight, so he tired to stop Valdez, but the latter refused and continued riding his bike, according to a GPD press release written by Gillio.
After Ballard began pursuing the suspect in his cruiser with blue lights flashing, Valdez hopped off his bike and tried to run away. Ballard ordered him to stop, called for backup and then pursued the suspect on foot.
The two ended up on the 100 block of West Eighth Street, where Ballard got close enough to grab Valdez, who then turned around and punched and kicked Ballard.
During the skirmish, Valdez managed to avoid the close-hand combat long enough to pull out a handgun before Ballard had an opportunity to do the same or reach for his taser. Valdez then pointed his weapon at Ballard’s face and pulled the trigger, but the weapon did not discharge, police said.
As the punching and kicking carried on, Cpl. Justin Matsuhara showed up and used his taser to subdue Valdez, causing the 5-foot, 6-inch, 220-pound Hispanic male to release his gun.
After it was all over, the officers arrested Valdez, who was substance-free as far as police know, and charged him with attempted murder, resisting a police officer, assault with a deadly weapon and illegal possession of a firearm, according to Gillio. Valdez was then transported to the county jail in San Jose.
“This was a very brash, brazen attack on a police officer,” Gillio said, adding that he could not recall any other attempted murders of a Gilroy officer. “This reminds us not to have any false sense of complacency when dealing with subjects because you never know when something like this is going to occur. It affects not only the officer involved but other officers who are working.”
As for the initial traffic violations, “that’s the least of his worries,” Gillio said. “We have an attempted murder on a police officer. We’re not too worried about those (bike) charges.”
Ballard could not be reached for comment Thursday since he was home sleeping, according to Gillio. But he was expected to show up to work for another graveyard shift beginning Thursday night. Gillio did not know whether Ballard had taken advantage of the department’s critical incident stress and brief team, a cathartic support group that was on duty Thursday morning, he said.
Residents up and down the 100 block of West Eighth street did not report seeing or hearing anything since most were asleep.
“I didn’t hear anything,” said Juan Cabrera, a mechanic who lives on the block. “I was sleeping.” Across the street, two more residents said they also did not hear any shouting or see any sirens. A gun shot would have certainly woken them up, though, but lucky for Ballard and those fast asleep, all remained quiet.
Staff Writer Chris Quirk contributed to this report.
