Elk Grove police identify suspect in April officer-involved shooting, friendly fire incident
The suspect involved in an April 20 officer-involved shooting incident, in which two Elk Grove police officers shot and wounded one suspect and also inadvertently shot each other, was discharged from a local hospital and booked into the Sacramento County jail on Wednesday, authorities said.
The Elk Grove Police Department has identified the suspect as Lester Tucker, 41, of Sacramento. Tucker faces charges of carrying a loaded and concealed firearm, resisting arrest and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a news release by the department.
As reported by authorities at the time, Elk Grove police officers responded to reports of a suspicious person near Tegan Road about 11 p.m. on April 20 in response to a possible burglary. The officers arrived at the scene to find a man and a woman, and ordered them to sit on the curb. The male suspect ran away, police said.
The two officers chased Tucker into a nearby shopping center, police said. As the officers stood on either side of him, the suspect then moved toward one of the officers with “his hands near his midsection area,” police said at the time.
The officers shot and wounded Tucker, who was later found to be in possession of a loaded firearm. But while firing at the suspect, both officers also shot each other in the lower body, leading to minor gunshot injuries, police said. The officers were released from hospital the following day.
California Department of Justice data show that friendly fire incidents among officers are rare, with only four instances reported in 2017. A police use-of-force training expert told The Sacramento Bee that officers are trained to not put themselves in positions where there is a potential of being caught in crossfire.
Elk Grove Police Department spokesman Officer Jason Jimenez told The Sacramento Bee last week that “police work can be dynamic and fluid,” and that the officers had not yet been interviewed in the early stages of investigation.
“It wasn’t reckless, it wasn’t careless and tactically it wasn’t ideal,” Jimenez said.
Investigators also did not know as of last week whether Tucker pulled his weapon on the officers.
Tucker is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
This story was originally published May 2, 2019 at 7:15 AM.
