FALLBROOK, Calif. (KGTV) – The San Diego Police Department has identified the suspect of a deputy-involved shooting that happened Friday morning in Fallbrook.
Jorge Alberto Sandoval, a 41-year-old Fallbrook man, was named as the suspect in an SDPD press release Friday afternoon. He faces charges of brandishing a firearm in the presence of a peace officer and spousal abuse. His injuries were described as non life threatening.
According to San Diego Police Department investigators, sometime after 1 a.m., San Diego County sheriff’s deputies were called to a home in the 4900 block of White Lilac Road, near Kendall Farms, in response to a man making suicidal threats.
Deputies on their way to the scene learned the subject, identified as a Hispanic male in his 40s, had access to firearms. The deputies were also informed of two children and the man's wife inside the house, according to investigators.
The suspect's wife was outside of the house when deputies arrived on the scene, and she told them she hid the guns from her husband earlier in the day because he threatened to kill himself. SDPD's press release says deputies were in the middle of getting more information from her when the suspect came out from behind the home armed with a scoped rifle.
Both deputies tried to command the suspect to stand down, but he kept moving forward towards them and his wife as he pointed the rifle in their direction, the release says. One of the deputies fired his rifle several times, hitting the suspect in the leg and lower body.
"This incapacitated the suspect, and the suspect dropped the rifle. The deputies were able to call for assistance from other deputies and paramedics," SDPD's release says.
The deputies put Sandoval in custody and carried him to a nearby ambulance so he could get medical treatment at a hospital. The woman had minor injuries, but did not need additional medical care, SDPD says.
The children, age 5 and 9, were not injured in the incident. ABC 10News learned the responding deputies were not hurt either.
Investigators said the deputy who fired at the suspect was placed on administrative assignment. That deputy has been on the San Diego Sheriff's Department force for about 15 years. He is currently a patrol deputy at the Fallbrook substation.
Because the shooting involved a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy, SDPD is handling the investigation, per county protocol.
