2 Salinas Police Officers On Leave After Fatally Shooting Teen
SALINAS (CBS SF) – Two Salinas police officers have been placed on leave following the fatal shooting early Wednesday morning of a teenager they said was wielding a butcher knife at them, according to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office.
Police responded around 1:35 a.m. to the 600 block of Terrace Street, where they found a teenage boy sharpening a butcher knife on the concrete sidewalk, Managing Deputy District Attorney Ed Hazel said.
The boy, whose name has not been released but who is described as being in his late teens, started swinging the knife and did not comply when an officer told him to drop it. Instead, the teen started to bang and hit a nearby shed with his fist, Hazel said.
Salinas firefighters responding to the incident sprayed the young man with a fire hose to try to get him to drop the knife, but it didn't work.
Four police officers then shot the boy with rubber bullets, and three officers tried to stun him with Taser stun guns, but he held fast to the knife, Hazel said.
The boy then swung the knife around wildly in the direction of the officers before running into a nearby home.
The officers followed the teenager into the home, where he moved toward them with the knife, so at 2:27 a.m., two officers shot and killed him with an AR-15 rifle and a .45-caliber service weapon, Hazel said.
Investigators from the district attorney's office collected six cartridges from the rifle and two from the handgun, but have not determined how many hit the boy.
Several bystanders who witnessed the incident have given their accounts to investigators, Hazel said.
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