A Chico police detective shot and killed a man with an loaded gun Tuesday outside of a residence on the 600 block of Pomona Avenue.
Police Chief Mike O’Brien said in a press conference Tuesday night that the Chico police department was investigating a series of armed robberies from last week of several convenient stores in the area.
“We believe at this point that the subject involved was connected to those robberies,” Chief O’Brien said.
Detectives received a search warrant after gathering information and a location on the possible subject. Information received included that the subject had a firearm. Since the armed robbery subject was believed to still have a gun with him, the Chico SWAT team was preparing to serve the search warrant.
Two pairs of detectives wearing protective vests were chosen to investigate the perimeter of the residence before the warrant was to be served.
At 1:30 p.m., the subject and a woman exited the residence walking towards one of the detective teams. After seeing the detectives, he preceded to pull out a gun and point it towards the detectives. After law enforcement fired at the man, he fell to the ground and CPR was performed. After medics arrived at the scene, the man was pronounced dead.
“A loaded, semi-automatic firearm was recovered at the scene with the suspect,” Chief O’Brien said. “Later, SWAT completed the service of the search warrant and located a second firearm inside the residence.”
District Attorney Mike Ramsey said that the gun recovered was found under the body of the deceased subject who was shot.
“The gun was loaded, the hammer was cocked and the safety was off,” Ramsey added.
According to Chief O’Brien and District Attorney Ramsey, the names of the deceased subject and the detectives involved in the shooting will be released in the next one to two days. The two detectives involved have been placed on paid, administrative leave; which is standard protocol following these types of incidents.
“What we have here is a tragedy for all involved but we will continue the investigation in the ensuing days and it will as usual be a rather detailed investigation,” Ramsey said.
Brandon Eiges can be reached at [email protected] or @brandoneiges on Twitter.
