GILROY
– A routine traffic stop turned into a showdown between a
pipe-wielding, Jehovah-preaching man and several Gilroy police
officers at Church and Second streets.
Gilroy police officers demonstrated their capability to use
force less lethal than the standard sidearm. Officers took down the
armed man, Angel Aguero, 31, using rubber
”
baton rounds
”
– semi-hollow rubber slugs 1.5 inches in diameter and 1.5 inches
long – and pepper spray Friday as numerous witnesses looked on.
GILROY – A routine traffic stop turned into a showdown between a pipe-wielding, Jehovah-preaching man and several Gilroy police officers at Church and Second streets.
Gilroy police officers demonstrated their capability to use force less lethal than the standard sidearm. Officers took down the armed man, Angel Aguero, 31, using rubber “baton rounds” – semi-hollow rubber slugs 1.5 inches in diameter and 1.5 inches long – and pepper spray Friday as numerous witnesses looked on.
While he may have had bruises and burning eyes afterward, police reported he suffered no injuries from two rubber bullets that hit him.
Officer Jason Hogue stopped a 1988 Cadillac driven by Aguero for a traffic violation at 12:36 p.m. at Church and Second streets, police said. Aguero responded by exiting the vehicle with a long metal pipe in his hand and advancing toward the officer.
A male passenger also got out of the car, tried to get Aguero to drop the pipe and eventually ran away, police said.
Hogue pointed his gun at Aguero and again ordered him to drop the pipe several times, but Aguero continued his approach. Police described Aguero’s manner as threatening. Hogue radioed for back-up, and several other officers responded. Aguero also refused their orders for him to drop the pipe. According to police, Aguero turned to one officer and said, “You’re going to have to shoot me,” and “You’re going to have to kill me.”
At that point, an officer fired a rubber baton round at Aguero. It hit him on the front of his body, police said, but he still held onto the pipe. Police said they then pepper-sprayed him, shot him with a second rubber round, and pepper-sprayed him again, at which point he dropped the pipe and they arrested him.
Aguero also made many religious-type statements mentioning “Jehovah,” police said.
Aguero was taken to Saint Louise Regional Hospital, where he was found to have no injuries from the rubber rounds. He was then booked into county jail on two felony charges and a misdemeanor: assault on a police officer, assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.
Regular patrol officers do not carry guns loaded with rubber baton rounds, but every supervisor’s car contains one, police said.
Several people who live on the 7800 block of Church Street said they witnessed the stand-off.
Rita Moore, of 7821 Church St., said she watched the drama through the window of her house. She said Aguero had the pipe in his hand when police shot him with the first rubber slug, but neither she nor her 17-year-old niece could remember whether he was still carrying the pipe the second time he was shot.
“I didn’t see him go to attack the officers,” Moore said. “I didn’t see him try to swing at the cops or anything.”
Aguero was in the middle of Church Street and the officers were on a sidewalk, Moore said. She thought it was a real bullet at first and said she was “disturbed” and “scared for the guy.” She quickly saw there was no blood, however, and Aguero didn’t act as she expected a man with a gunshot wound would.
“He just kept walking backwards, holding his chest like he was in pain,” Moore said.
After the second rubber slug, Moore said, police “sprayed him with Mace, and it wasn’t until then that I saw him totally comply with police officers,” Moore said. They then tackled him, pinned him down and took him away, she said.
Johnny Ramirez, who declined to give his address but said he lives nearby, said he saw Aguero drop the pipe well before police shot him with a rubber slug.
“As soon as the other cops pulled up, he dropped it,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez was the only one of a group of young men hanging out on the sidewalk who was willing to give his name. Others, who said they saw the incident, too, gave the same account as him.
Ramirez also said he heard Aguero “preaching to God” during his stand-off with police.
“He said he was a Jehovah’s Witness,” Ramirez said.
The stand-off took place in front of the home of Jonathan Rodriguez and his roommate, Martin Guevara. Rodriguez was at work but said Guevara saw it through the front window and gave him a play-by-play account over the phone. They were especially concerned because guns were involved, Rodriguez said. Their house was one of two hit by bullets in a gang-related shooting between two cars Dec. 28.
Rodriguez and Guevara moved into the house in August, and Friday’s incident was the third crime to take place there since. In November, Rodriguez said, an intoxicated man forced his way into their house and broke several windows and flowerpots before police removed him. The interloper’s lawyer later told them his client confused the house with that of a friend.
“I was telling my co-workers at work, I might go back to San Jose,” Rodriguez said. “(I lived) right downtown, (and) I never had a problem before.”
