By Sean Webby
Contra Costa Times
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A veteran San Jose police officer shot and killed a man who was attacking a fellow officer with knives, law enforcement officials reported a day after the fatal encounter in the foothills.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office identified Officer Geeno Gular, a 42-year-old Iraq War veteran, as the officer who fired the shots.
As is usual with all officer-involved shootings, Gular, who has been on the force since 1994 and served in several elite investigative units, has been put on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of an investigation.
Investigators have not identified the 50-year-old Asian man who was shot, pending notification of his relatives, but they released an account of the shooting, saying the officer fired to save another officer’s life.
About 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Gular and several other officers responded to the foothills east of San Jose on a report that a burglar had threatened someone with a knife, said sheriff’s Sgt. Rick Sung.
Some construction workers working on a project near Mount Pleasant Road suspected the man of stealing some tools from their trailer. They followed him up a steep hill. Along the way, one of the workers called San Jose police on his cell phone to say the man had threatened him and said that he had knives, according to Sung.
When Gular, another San Jose officer, a San Jose sergeant and a deputy sheriff arrived, the man was found hiding nearby in the bed of a narrow, rugged creek ravine. He had two knives in one hand, Sung said.
Police ordered the man to drop the weapons. He did not, Sung said.
Then, the sergeant fired his Taser at the man. But the stun gun apparently had little effect. The man simply tore the barbs from his body. Then he came at the sergeant, with the knives above his head, Sung said.
It was then that Gular fired his weapon, striking the man four times and killing him instantly.
Gular was the victim of a bizarre shooting in 2007, when he was accidentally shot by a fellow officer during an investigation. It was the second time within a year Gular had been wounded, in the same arm. Gular, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was shot in the wrist during a firefight.
Copyright 2011 Contra Costa Newspapers