TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Law enforcement officers shot a man in a Delano parking lot Monday after he led them on a high speed chase, according to witnesses and police.

The chase began as the McFarland Police Department was investigating a series of auto crimes, according to a police department news release.

A man fled from officers in a pickup truck, police said, and was shot in Delano at the end of the chase.

The investigation had lead officers to a ranch in the 30000 block of Elmo Highway Monday, where they had learned several vehicles stolen in the last three weeks might be being stored or dismantled, the news release said. The officers saw several men on the property dismantling vehicles and watched as the men got into vehicles and drove onto the road, police said.

As police tried to pull over two vehicles as they left the property a black Nissan pickup, driven by Randy Coss Ferreira, sped away. The people in the two other vehicles fled into nearby orchards on foot, the news release said.

Ferreira led McFarland and California Highway Patrol officers on a roughly 25-minute chase, driving more than 70 mph through city streets and roads in McFarland and Delano, police said. During the chase, he plowed through two barricades closing roadways and tried to “collide” with patrol vehicles and other vehicles, the news release said.

The vehicle chase ended in the 900 block of High Street, in Delano, where Ferreira got out and ran on foot. CHP and McFarland officers ran after him and Ferreira was shot and wounded by officers, the news release said. Ferreira was arrested on suspicion of possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of stolen property and “Evading a Peace Officer: Reckless Driving.”

The Nissan was found to have been stolen from Delano and the two abandoned vehicles had also been stolen, police said.

The news release sent Monday night did not say how many officers fired their weapons and what agencies the officers who shot Ferreira were from, nor did it specify how serious Ferreira’s injuries where or what time the shooting occurred. No one from the police department was available to answer questions Monday night.

Ferreira was treated at the scene and taken to Kern Medical Center. The McFarland officers involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, according to the news release.

KMC house supervisor Val Cooke, a nurse, said Ferreira was in stable condition and was admitted to the hospital for 24 hours for observation purposes only.

At the scene, one witness said Ferreira seemed to have been shot while trying to surrender.

Omar Ruiz, an employee at The Pipe Shop on High Street, noticed the commotion between 11 a.m. and noon when he heard sirens and saw a small pickup pass by with three law enforcement vehicles in pursuit. The chase turned right off of High Street onto 9th Street, Ruiz said.

Ruiz saw the man, later identified as Ferreira, come running from the direction of the Chase Bank on Main Street with three officers racing after him. He described Ferreira as a thin man who appeared to be in his 30s.

“They were chasing him and he went around, I guess to try to go around the building, but that’s where I guess he just gave up and saw the rest of the cops,” Ruiz said.

Ferreira, dressed in a soiled white shirt and blue jeans, ran toward a red building on the corner of High and 9th street but then halted and held up his hands facing the officers, Ruiz said.

“As soon as he stopped, (an officer) just shoot him twice,” Ruiz said.

Ferreira fell to the ground and the officers handcuffed him, Ruiz said. Ruiz said he thought the Ferreira was dead until he heard him screaming as he was loaded into an ambulance about 20 minutes later.

About an hour after the shooting, High and Main streets were still shut down between 10th and 9th streets as investigators examined the scene in 100 degree heat. A Nissan pickup truck with what appeared to be tires in the bed was parked on the outside edge of the bank’s drive-through with a California Highway Patrol vehicle and McFarland Police Department car stopped behind it.

California Highway Patrol, Delano Police Department and McFarland police vehicles were parked along High Street.

“We just opened two weeks ago, said Ruiz, standing behind the counter in the shop. “To see this kind of stuff is like, wow.... The cops are just a block away. We thought it was going to be a safe location.”

The shooting also unnerved Francisco R. Murguia, who said he was inside the bank when the chase culminated.  

Murguia said Ferreira got out of the pickup and started running toward the bank. A female officer fired at Ferreira once, said Murguia, holding his hands clasped in front of him at shoulder height to demonstrate the officer’s stance.

Murguia said he believed Ferreira was hit in the shoulder and then ran toward 9th and High streets as multiple officers were descending on the area. Standing across the street for the site of the shooting, Murguia said he heard five shots total during the incident.

Murguia said that as far as he knew, Ferreira was not armed when he was shot.

After the shooting, Murguia said Delano police wouldn’t let the people inside the bank leave until they had been interviewed.
Murguia said he had been scared as the episode unfolded. He said police didn’t seem to realize that there were other people around them who could have been hit by stray bullets.

Law enforcement officials weren’t available to comment on the witnesses’ observations.