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Update February 14, 2020: ECPC has identified the suspect who was shot as Keith Crenshaw, 21, of Arizona. The name of the officer has sitll not been released.
By Miriam Raftery
February 12, 2020 (El Cajon) – A suspected car thief is hospitalized after being shot twice in the torso by an El Cajon Police officer this morning shortly before 9 a.m.
According to Lt. Randy Soulard, an out-of-state law enforcement agency informed El Cajon Police Dept. that a stolen tan Kia Amanti sedan from their jurisdiction was in El Cajon. The reported agency directed officers, who located the stolen vehicle parked in the 500 block of South Johnson.
The officers found a man asleep in the driver’s seat. “As they planned their approach to arrest the suspect and prevent his escape, he woke up. The officers identified themselves as police officers and immediately began giving repeated commands for the suspect to show them his hands. The suspect refused to show his hands and repeatedly reached under his clothing and into his waistband,” says Lt. Soulard.
He reports that the suspect continued to ignore the officer’s commands and stated something similar to “Shoot me before I do it!” while reaching into his waistband.
According to Lt. Soulard, “Believing the suspect was armed, one of the officers on scene fired two rounds, striking the suspect at least one time in the torso. The suspect continued to disobey the officer’s commands by refusing to show his hands. He told the officers, `Kill me please.’”
The suspect ultimately showed his hands, was removed from the vehicle, and was immediately given first aid until medics arrived, police report. Medics quickly responded and the suspect was immediately transported and is being treated at a local hospital.
No firearms were located in the suspect’s possession or in the stolen car.
No one else was injured during this incident and there are no outstanding suspects in this case. The suspect has been taken into custody for auto theft, a felony, and will be booked into jail once released from the hospital.
This is an on-going investigation in its early stages.
ECM has requested the names and races of the officer and suspect, as well as any body cam footage of the incident.
The El Cajon Police Department encourages anyone with information regarding this incident to contact us at (619)579-3311 or San Diego Crime Stoppers at (619) 235-8477.
An ECPD fatal shooting of a Alfred Olango, an unarmed mentally disturbed black man who pointed a vaping device resembling a gun at an officer in 2016 resulted in a week or more of civil unrest and protests.
Comments
De-escalation
Your headline is shameful too!
You only quoted half the headline.
The other half made clear the suspect was in a stolen car and goaded officers to kill him, according to police.
Officers indicate they believed he was reaching for a gun. If all of that is true, the shooting would likely be found justified.
Because ECPD has previously had an officer involved shooting that erupted into civil unrest and protests, we asked for body cam video to see if it woudl confirm (or refute) what the officers reported. That's called fact-checking.
Race may or may not be relevant, depending on what the body cam video may show. But if we were able to say up front that this was, say, a white suspect and white officer, then reporting such could actually defuse any racial tensions. These are legitimate questions.
ECPD SHOOTING
Race?
Man shot reaching into waistband,
ECPD shooting