SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Three San Diego Police officers were involved in a shooting at a Tierrasanta apartment complex Saturday afternoon, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
Firefighters were called to a reported structure fire in the 11200 block of Tierrasanta Boulevard near Colina Dorada Drive at about 11: 57 a.m. When units arrived, they smelled unattended food and entered the apartment complex. Neighbors tell ABC 10News they saw smoke coming from a unit and filling the hallway of the first floor. One neighbor said he attempted to knock on the door before calling for help, but there was no response.
Authorities say when firefighters went in, a man sitting on a couch pointed a handgun at them over his shoulder. They quickly exited the building and called SDPD for backup.
Police set a perimeter around the apartment before the man emerged around 1 p.m. He began shooting at officers, so officers returned fire, according to the Sheriff's Department. No officers were injured.
“There were three San Diego PD officers and they returned fire, they shot back, the man went back into the apartment," said Lt. Amber Baggs, Media Relations Director for the sheriff's department. “There’s a patio attached to his apartment, and he jumped off of that patio and started running east through the parking lot, at that time we had officers at the perimeter, they heard a single gunshot and ABLE was flying overhead and they did see the man lying on the ground, and it appeared he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.”
The San Diego Sheriff's Department was called in to investigate the incident. They are still trying to determine if the man was also hit by any of the officer's returned fire.
The shooting will be investigated under a new protocol that requires an outside agency to investigate fatal shootings.
The man's identity is being withheld until next of kin is notified. The medical examiner has scheduled an autopsy scheduled for the man on Sunday, June 5.
