Redding police fatally shoot Yuba County woman who hit officer with her car, officials say
A Redding police officer shot to death a 62-year-old Yuba County woman after she struck another officer with her car and pinned him underneath one of the vehicle’s tires, sheriff’s officials said.
Dolores Hernandez, of Marysville, was the woman shot by police during a confrontation Wednesday evening in the parking lot of a Redding restaurant, according to a news release from the Shasta County Coroner’s Office.
The circumstances that led to the fatal shooting began inside the MOD Pizza restaurant at the Discovery Village shopping Center on Dana Drive in Redding.
Hernandez was “yelling and cursing” at customers and restaurant staff, and employees tried to usher her out of the restaurant, according to a news release from the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the police shooting. Hernandez eventually left the restaurant.
But she continued to create a disturbance in the parking lot, sheriff’s officials said, exhibiting disruptive behavior for more than 20 minutes. Then, a security guard at the shopping center tried to intervene, but she berated the security guard and refused to leave. The security guard then called the Redding Police Department.
Two police officers arrived at the shopping center and spotted Hernandez sitting in the driver’s seat of a dark sedan. Nobody else was in the car, which was parked directly in front of MOD Pizza.
While the officers were talking to her, Hernandez began to back her car out of the parking spot in an apparent attempt to leave, sheriff’s officials said. The car backed up a few feet before it stopped. Sheriff’s officials said Hernandez put the car’s gear-shift in drive and turned the car’s wheels toward the officers, nearly hitting one of them.
The officers wound up on the car’s driver’s side, and one of the officers tried to get her to stop by hitting the driver’s window with his baton and ordering her to stop the car, according to the sheriff’s news release.
Hernandez then put the car in reverse, turned the wheels and moved the car backward. The car’s front driver’s side tire struck one of the officers, sheriff’s officials said. The officer fell to the ground and was pinned under that front tire.
“If the vehicle accelerated forward, this movement would have put the officer in more danger potentially causing him to be run over by the rear tires,” sheriff’s officials said in the news release.
The other officer quickly tried to disable the car by deflating the driver’s side rear tire. The officer struck by the front tire was still pinned underneath when the other officer pulled out his department-issued gun and fired multiple shots at Hernandez, “fatally wounding her,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The officer trapped under the front tire was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Sheriff’s officials said the injured officer was expected to make a full recovery and has since been released from the hospital.
The Sheriff’s Office expects to release the names of the two officers at a later date. The sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit is leading the investigation into the police shooting.
Investigators asked anyone who witnessed the incident and hasn’t already been questioned or has any additional information to call the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 530-245-6135 or send an email to MCU@co.shasta.ca.us.
