Stockton PD took a 7am day shift call. A man with an ax was smashing the front door of an occupied home. Substantial damage. The suspect — 25-year-old Moises Andrade — was gone before officers got there.
Follow-up turned up that he might be headed to another residence to do it again. Two officers approached a second home on foot. The garage door cracked open. Andrade was inside.
The officers talked to him in Spanish. Calm. Asking his name. Asking what was going on. Not pushing.
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Then he reached for an ax tied to a bicycle with a string and armed himself in front of them.
One officer drew a service weapon. The other drew a taser. They stepped back. They gave commands to drop it. He refused. He took a pre-assaultive stance and raised the ax from inside six feet.
One officer fired. Andrade was given medical aid by officers until paramedics arrived, transported to an area hospital, and later pronounced deceased. No officers were injured. No civilians inside either residence were harmed.
Stockton ran this call right. Calm contact. De-escalation attempted. Less-lethal staged alongside lethal. They didn’t push him into a corner. He walked himself into a swing.
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