BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
The San Mateo County District Attorney said yesterday (March 13) he won’t charge three Redwood City police officers involved in fatally shooting a man in a standoff.
DA Steve Wagstaffe said the three officers involved in the fatal shooting of Jose Reynaldo Lombera acted in self-defense.
Police responded to a call of a man shooting at the sidewalk on the 200 block of Hazel Avenue at 2:31 p.m. on Nov. 11.
Lombera, 48, of Redwood City, had approached his neighbor, Santiago Sanchez-Vasquez, and falsely accused him of stealing his dog, according to Wagstaffe.
Lombera fired a shot into the ground two feet away from where Sanchez-Vasquez was after he denied taking the dog. Lombera said he felt like killing San-chez-Vasquez and did not care if the police showed up, the DA said. Lombera then walked away.
Officers made a plan
Police showed up a short time later, and used a drone in order to find Lombera outside of his home at
133 Hemlock Ave. Officers gathered at the Free Wesleyan Church across the street from Lombera’s home to make a game plan. Sgt. Ruben Orozco told the four other officers with him to plan to shoot rubber bullets at Lombera if he was not compliant with officers.
Officers began to close in on Lombera, and when they were about 10 to 15 feet away, they asked him to raise his hands, according to the DA’s account.
Lombera began to raise his arms, but put hits hands on his sides, toward his right front pocket, Wagstaffe said.
Officer Adrian Espinoza-Gonzalez fired the gun with rubber bullets and hit Lombera in the stomach, but had little effect. Lombera then got his handgun and held it with both hands in a shooting stance, the DA said.
and held it with both hands in a shooting stance, the DA said.
Tried to avoid it
Orozco and Officer Carlos Ordaz fired their rifles, and Officer Jake Granado fired his handgun, Wag-staffe said. A total of nine shots were fired and four of them hit Lombera in the stomach, the DA said.
Lombera was taken to Stanford Hospital, where he died at 4:01 p.m. Meth and alcohol were found in Lombera’s system, according to the toxicology report.
The officers did everything to avoid using lethal weapons in this traumatic event, but the danger posed to nearby residents and officers was extremely high, Wagstaffe said.