San Marcos CA—Early this morning, March 2, 2017 at 3:15 AM, Sheriff’s deputies from the San Marcos Station responded to a house in the 600 block of Edgewater Drive in San Marcos to investigate a report of a “hot prowl burglary” (burglary of an occupied residence). The homeowner said he was awakened by a barking dog. He went to investigate and found an unknown male inside his home, armed with a baseball bat. He locked himself, his wife and their two adult sons in rooms upstairs and called 9-1-1.
Deputies surrounded and entered the home through an open sliding glass door at the rear of the residence. They found the suspect, whose arms were full of items he was in the process of stealing from the home. He refused to follow the deputies’ commands to show them his hands and to get on the ground.
The suspect fled from inside the residence into the garage where he tried to start one of the victim’s vehicles. When he was unsuccessful, he moved to the second vehicle inside the garage and was able start it. While in the garage, the suspect threatened to kill deputies and later himself, claiming he had a “Glock 40” in his possession. Using the remote control inside the car, the suspect opened the garage door and attempted to back out of the garage. The vehicle collided with another vehicle parked in the victim’s driveway. He unsuccessfully tried to use the vehicle he was driving to push the second car out of the way to escape
The suspect exited the vehicle and ran from the garage into the driveway where he confronted deputies. During the confrontation, one deputy fired a less-lethal beanbag shotgun while another fired his Department issued handgun. As deputies attempted to take the suspect into custody, he continued to yell at them and fight with them. Once handcuffed, the deputies discovered the suspect had been shot in the torso.
Deputies called for medical aid and immediately began CPR. San Marcos Fire Department arrived and took over life saving measures however the suspect was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death. The suspect’s identity is being withheld pending notification of his next of kin. The names of the involved deputies will be released after three business days.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Homicide Detail at (858) 974-2321/after hours at (858) 565-5200. You can also remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.