Suspect yells for officers to shoot him
Morgan Hill – Several city police officers and Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies narrowly avoided shooting a Morgan Hill man apparently bent on dying – but he wanted officers to do the shooting.
“They thought they were going to have to shoot him,” MHPD Cmdr. Joe Sampson said Monday. “It wasn’t clear if he had a weapon, but he was certainly acting as if he did, and he yelled for them to shoot him.”
Eduardo Luna, 21, was talking on a cell phone when officers responded to a call about 11pm in the area of Peppertree Drive and Jasmine Way.
“He was telling whoever he was talking to that he was going to die that night,” Sampson said. “He refused to show officers his hands, then reached into his jacket as though he was going to pull out a weapon.”
The call to police came from neighbors, Sampson said, after Luna was reportedly punching walls and doors of residences in the neighborhood.Â
Believing he had a gun, officers attempted to detain him with Tasers, but the thick jacket he was wearing diminished the effect of the jolt.
Four MHPD officers were soon joined by seven Sheriff’s deputies, he said, and the deputies tried to bring Luna down with what are known as less lethal shotgun rounds, or beanbags. Once again, Luna stopped, turned around, behaving as if he had a gun or a knife, police said.
Officers then used rubber bullets, but they had no effect on Luna.
“Finally, they circled him and doused him with pepper spray,” Sampson said. “He finally gave up and dropped to his knees.”
Luna was taken to Valley Medical Center in San Jose where he was treated for his self-inflicted wounds. He was then placed on a mental health hold.
Sampson said routine blood tests were conducted, but did not have results and did not know if Luna was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“He could have been on some psychotropic drug,” he said. “Or, if he was on medication for psychological problems, sometimes when they go off the meds, then they can go off the rails like this.”
In the end, Luna’s bid to commit “suicide by cop” – he frequently yelled out for officers to shoot him – was unsuccessful, and Sampson said he is proud of the officers for their handling of the situation.
“They really exercised a lot of self-restraint,” he said. “They did everything they needed to do, and did not have to shoot him. They didn’t know what, if any weapon, he had, and tensions a pretty high following the shooting of the officer in Palo Alto. We are proud of the way they handled the situation.”
