Posted on 08/31/2006 5:54:31 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
SAN MARCOS — A police officer here shot and killed a 19-year-old man Wednesday as the man sat on his mother's chest, stabbing her with a dinner fork, in the street outside their home.
The woman, Rosita Pineda, called police at about 10:45 a.m. and told the dispatcher that her son, Christopher Gonzales, was acting strangely and was armed with a butter knife.
When officer Tracy Frans arrived at the house in the 1000 block of Gravel Street, he saw Gonzales in the street, holding a fork to his mother's neck, said San Marcos Police Chief Howard Williams.
Williams said Frans called for backup and drew his Glock .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun. He said Gonzales and Pineda fell to the ground, or Gonzales pulled her to the ground, and then got on top of his mother, who was already bloody from being stabbed.
"The officer said, 'Drop the fork or I'll shoot,'" Williams said. "Then he started stabbing his mother in the throat again and the officer fired one shot."
Gonzales was struck in the chest and died around noon at Central Texas Medical Center.
Frans was placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated and presented to a grand jury, which is standard procedure.
About a half-dozen people were gathered on the porch of Pineda's home Wednesday afternoon, but they declined to comment.
Williams said he did not know what started the family altercation and that, so far, the shooting appeared justified.
"He felt like he was going to kill the mother if he did not intervene," Williams said of Frans. "I would expect the family to be angry with us, but at the same time I feel the officer acted appropriately to protect the mother. The officer did not create the situation, Mr. Gonzales did."
Pineda was taken to Central Texas Medical Center, but declined treatment. Gonzales' two older brothers also received minor injuries scuffling with him before police arrived, but they also declined treatment.
Williams said he did not know if Frans was armed with a stun gun or pepper spray.
"But he is not going to take the time to switch weapons while there is a stabbing going on," he said.
He said Frans was "pretty shook up over the fact that he shot someone, but he seems to be doing OK."
Gonzales was arrested in 2005 on a family violence charge and earlier this year on charges of theft and evading arrest, Williams said.
Uh, no. I am going to commend him for one shot, one kill.
Never bring a fork to a gun fight.
Oh yes, a whole contingent will show up to decry the "jack-booted thugs" for looking for an opportunity to shoot someone for wielding a fork.
Leaving the world no poorer...
No problems here. People like that need to take the eternal celestial dirt knap.
Too Obvious.
On an even more callous note, the mother is going to have to live with a difficult time here, and think about all the things that she 'might have done better' in her mind for the rest of her life.
I would never "fork up" a comment like that.....
Gotta be a Michael Moore or Ted Kennedy joke in there.
I don't see any.
Give them some time. They usually show up on any thread in which a cop shoots someone.
The punk came to a "fork in the road"...
and took the one less traveled?
he forked up
When forks are outlawed, only outlaws will have forks!
Article doesn't say, but was it a common dinner fork? ..or an evil assault BBQ fork?
He was a mother-for....
No, I won't go there!!
Aim for center of mass and fire.
I will see you one fork and raise you one bullet. Or maybe we are not really reading what was going on here. Maybe the guy was a religious cannibal trying to lunch on mom. Did the cop violate his rights by denying him his rightful snack or sacrement? Call the ACLU.
I'm guessing the row began with:
"Christopher, eat your vegetables."
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