By James Herrera, Monterey Herald
Sand City >> Police officers fatally shot two people in a gunfight in the parking lot of a Target store in Sand City’s Edgewater Shopping Center on Monday.
Around 3:30 p.m., two Sand City police officers attempted to serve warrants on two people when the suspects opened fire on the officers, police said. Both officers were wounded and both suspects were killed, Sand City Police Chief Brian Ferrante and District Attorney Dean Flippo announced in a joint media briefing Monday afternoon at the scene.
“After the officers confronted them, the suspects opened fire,” said Ferrante. “Both officers injured were transported to the hospital via ambulance and are in stable condition.”
Bouchra Gygax, a student at Monterey Peninsula College, was trying to find parking at the shopping center off Highway 1 when she saw two policemen holding up a third man and the foot of another person sticking out of a car in front of them.
“While I was waiting people started pulling out their phones and somebody said, ‘The cop got shot and he shot back,’” Gygax said.
The scene quickly became chaotic, she said, as she saw patrol cars and ambulances coming from everywhere.
“It was crazy,” she said.
Ferrante requested the DA’s Bureau of Investigation conduct the investigation.
“We now have 15 investigators that are involved in gathering evidence both here” and at Natividad Medical Center, said Flippo.
Officers from Seaside, Marina, Monterey, the California Highway Patrol and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office aided Sand City police at the scene. No further information was released on the two suspects pending notification of next of kin.
Ferrante said the officers knew the suspects and knew they had outstanding warrants.
“Fortunately no innocent bystanders were involved,” Ferrante said.
Though Target was closed in the wake of the shooting, the other 20 or so businesses in the shopping center stayed open.
Herald staff writer Claudia Meléndez Salinas contributed to this report. James Herrera can be reached at 726-4344.
‘Bouchra Gygax,’, what the h-ll kind of name is that? It sounds like a character in Star Trek. We are now getting dreamers from places that one can’t even figure out where they are from.
Fifteen investigators for one shooting. These gang thugs are a goldmine for the criminal justice system's public employee unions: cops, guards, bailiffs, translators, public defenders, social workers, parole officers, bilingual remedial educators...
No wonder Commander Xero lets them out of prison.
Oh, great.
Material for no-knock, oh-dark-thirty SWAT raids in order to prevent harm to police and bystanders - never mind their alarming propensity to get the address wrong.