Watch as Sacramento police fire past bystander’s car as woman points pellet gun at officers
Police on Thursday released video and 911 audio from an incident last month in which officers shot a woman who waved a pellet gun and pointed it at law enforcement after allegedly robbing a coffee shop in midtown Sacramento.
The shooting happened around 12:45 p.m. May 20 near the intersection of 28th and Q streets, the Sacramento Police Department said in a news release.
Two officers fired five shots at the woman on a sidewalk, striking her at least twice, body camera video showed. She survived and was treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital before being arrested, according to the department.
The officer-involved shooting happened directly in front of two bystanders inside of a parked white sedan, with one of the two officers appearing to fire over the top of the witness vehicle from several feet away and toward the suspect, the video showed.
The suspect, identified by the Sacramento Police Department as 43-year-old Chio Saeteurn, was seen in the video taking cover behind a sidewalk palm tree and pointing what appeared to be a silver handgun toward police. Her firearm, police learned after the tense exchange, was an airsoft pellet gun.
The incident began after police dispatchers received numerous 911 calls from 24th and N streets and surrounding areas reporting a person walking in the area holding a handgun, as well as a call from an employee of a business who reported that a person walked in, waved a gun and stole money, the department said in a news release.
Video shows that the first officer to arrive at the scene approached the woman armed with the pellet gun near the northeast corner of Albert Winn Park. This officer drove his patrol vehicle onto the grass, hopping curbs into and out of the park before pursuing the woman as she ran across the street, past houses on 28th Street across from the park.
The officer then exited his vehicle and began to chase the woman on foot with his firearm drawn as she ran southbound on 28th Street toward Q Street, pointing his gun at her as the two of them crossed the latter street.
A second police vehicle, driven by a K-9 officer, arrived at the scene as the first officer caught up with the woman near a palm tree and a parked white car at the southeast corner of 28th and Q. The two officers can be heard repeatedly telling the woman to get on the ground and to show them her hands.
After the woman stopped running near the palm tree, she could be seen in the video pulling a gun out of her jacket. Seconds later, five gunshots could be heard and the woman dropped to the ground. The Police Department said the first arriving officer and the K-9 officer each discharged their firearms.
After the shots were fired, an officer told the witness sitting in the driver’s seat of the bystander vehicle to get out of the car. After several seconds, the witness – whose face is blurred in the video – exited the vehicle uninjured.
Several officers then approached the woman on the sidewalk using a shield. She is heard in the video telling officers that she was shot in the leg, and a witness can be heard screaming unintelligibly in the background.
Police tending to the suspect’s wounds are heard saying she was shot in the abdomen and in the knee, the video showed.
Officers recovered a silver pellet gun at the scene, according to the Police Department news release. Neither involved officer was injured.
Saeteurn was arrested on charges related to robbery, police said. Jail records show she was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on May 21, following her release from the hospital.
This story was originally published June 1, 2023 at 11:43 AM.
