A Pomona cattle farmer says he thought he was being robbed when three armed men in civilian clothing showed up on his farm with guns drawn, and he didn’t find out they were police officers until after he’d already been shot and fired back in self-defence.
The forty-six-year-old was resting near a shed on his farm Thursday when he says his dog’s barking alerted him to the men approaching, guns already pointed at him, ordering him to put his hands up. With no uniforms and no identification, he says his instincts told him to run.
“I lay down, taking a lee five, when I heard my dog bark. That is when I swiftly get up. When I see three armed persons approaching me and demanding I put up my hands. Three armed gunmen. I hurry to get up. Then I look left and look right to see what to do, because the three guns are pointed at me. They told me, ‘Hands up.’ They did not tell me that they are police; they just told me, ‘Hands up.’ Then, what I do now, I do a quick reaction. Then I run. I run, fearing for my life. But at the same time I have my licensed firearm in my pocket, but I did not pull that because of the three of them. Because as a trained soldier, I cannot hit the three people, because more likely they will kill me. So I run. So my mind tells me, “Only if I get shot, then I will respond back.”
That’s exactly what happened. The farmer says he was shot as he ran, and once on the ground, he pulled his own licensed firearm and returned fire, an exchange that forced the armed men to retreat.
“After I get shot, I drop on the ground, then I pull out my licensed firearm and I start to open fire at them. That is when they leave me. I want justice, because this is unfair. Unfair. They told me that after they shoot me, then one of them comes and tells me, ‘I’m a police officer.’ ‘I tell him, ‘Don’t come beside me, because you’re the same one that shot me,’ I told one of them.”
Asked whether the officers ever explained what brought them to his farm in the first place, the farmer said he still doesn’t know. “No, they never tell me anything. What was the reason?”
The confrontation also claimed the life of his dog, which he describes as a constant companion and protector. “The dog is dead. I’m dead. He got shot. They are the ones that protect me. Everywhere I go, he’s always beside me.”
