By Caleb Lunetta
The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO — Body-worn camera footage released Tuesday shows a sheriff’s deputy fatally shoot a man allegedly armed with a knife near a crowded outdoor event in Imperial Beach earlier this month.
Investigators said Gary Gates, 51, was advancing toward deputies with a knife in his hand and asking them to shoot him when Deputy Maxwell Hammond shot him around 1:40 p.m. Dec. 21 on Seacoast Drive near Evergreen Avenue.
The shooting is being investigated by San Diego police under a countywide protocol designed to prevent departments from investigating shootings by their own officers or deputies.
The edited video begins by detailing a call involving Gates two days before the shooting, during which deputies received a report that he was experiencing a drug overdose in the same location. Gates had posted on social media around 5:40 p.m. that he had “swallowed a golf ball-sized chunk of fentanyl” and that if the police came to his aid, he would give them a reason to shoot him.
Text in the video says deputies found Gates holding a 6-inch folding knife against his chest and threatening to kill himself.
Psychiatric help and crisis negotiation teams were called, and after a few hours, Gates put the knife away. He declined further mental health services, and deputies left the scene, according to text in the video.
Two days later, deputies received a call in the early afternoon from Gates, who said he wanted to speak to a specific deputy.
After being told by the 911 operator that he’d need to contact the non-emergency line, Gates abruptly hung up the phone, according to an audio recording of the call in the video. Nearby deputies were informed of the call and that Gates was just outside the 2025 Christmas by the Sea Pow Wow — an event attended by hundreds of people — in the Portwood Pier Plaza, text in the video reads.
The video then cuts to body-worn camera footage from Hammond, Deputy Jose Gonzalez-Diaz and Sgt. April Gaines just as they located and confronted Gates, who was standing on the sidewalk with his back to a row of outdoor vendors near the festival.
“Gary, what’s going on man? What’s going on? Let’s just have a conversation,” Hammond said.
According to investigators, Hammond and Gates were familiar with one another already, but the man insisted he only wanted to speak with a particular deputy, who was not at the scene.
After a short exchange with Hammond, Gates asked the deputy for a favor because “this is going to be a crisis,” he’s heard saying in the video.
Hammond then began walking toward the man. Gates responded by walking backward into the road’s intersection to keep his distance from the deputies and pulled out what appears to be a knife, the video shows.
“Back up! Back up!” Gates yelled at the deputies.
“Gary, you’re not in trouble, man,” Hammond said.
Hammond withdrew his service weapon and told Gaines to grab a beanbag gun from his vehicle. Gaines headed back to the vehicle but turned back around and withdrew her Taser.
“Get your gun out,” Gates yelled at the deputies a handful of times. “Don’t miss!”
Gates walked toward Hammond and Gonzalez-Diaz with what appears to be a knife in his raised hand. The deputies backed up and told him multiple times not to move and stay where he was.
Gates continued to advance on Hammond, who was standing with his back up against the vendor canopies. The deputy opened fire multiple times, and Gates fell to the ground.
“I forgive you,” Gates said, while holding his chest.
The video shows Hammond performing medical aid on Gates, while a crowd gathered around the scene and yelled at the deputies.
“You shot him!” one bystander yelled, while another shouted, “He’s dead! Are you happy?”
Text in the video says paramedics arrived and took Gates to a hospital, where he died. A retractable knife was recovered at the scene.
When San Diego police complete their investigation, the county District Attorney’s Office will review it to determine if the deputy bears any criminal liability.
The Sheriff’s Office will conduct an administrative investigation into the detective’s discharge of his firearm.
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