A man who put a gun to a police officer’s face and pulled the
trigger two weeks ago was hoping that police would shoot and kill
him, court documents revealed.
A man who put a gun to a police officer’s face and pulled the trigger two weeks ago was hoping that police would shoot and kill him, court documents revealed.
Luckily for officer John Ballard, the gun jammed and no bullet fired. Instead, the officer wrestled the gun away from his 28-year-old assailant, Pete Joseph Valdez III, and with the help of another officer, handcuffed the alleged attempted murderer.
“I wanted the police officer to shoot me,” said a crying Valdez during a post-incident interview. “I don’t want to live.”
Valdez – a son of a former councilman with at least three prior felony convictions – will appear in court this morning and is scheduled to enter a plea on felony charges of attempted murder of a police officer, assault on a police officer with a gun, being a felon who purchased or received a firearm, and resisting or obstructing a police officer. If convicted of attempted murder, he will receive a life sentence. If convicted of the other three counts only, he could get between 7.5 and 15 years in prison.
The incident began about 3 a.m. Nov. 15, officer John Ballard spotted Valdez biking east on Eighth Street past Hanna Street without a headlight and on the wrong side of the road, wrote Ballard in his incident report. Ballard shone a spotlight on Valdez, got out of his vehicle and told Valdez to stop. Instead, Valdez fled north on Hanna Street.
Ballard hung a U-turn, caught up to Valdez about a half a block north, rolled down his window and yelled to Valdez again to stop, police said.
“What did I do?” Valdez yelled back, police said.
Ballard told Valdez, but that didn’t stop Valdez, police said. He hung a quick U-turn, forcing Ballard to brake hard to avoid hitting him. Ballard also hung a U-turn and followed Valdez south on Hanna Street then east on Eighth Street. At 148 W. Eighth St., Valdez turned into a driveway, hung a U-turn and started biking toward Ballard’s patrol car.
Ballard got out of his car and ran at Valdez, police said. Valdez dumped his bike and tried to run past Ballard, but the officer grabbed him around his left side. Valdez tried to grab Ballard’s collar and hit him, but the officer wrestled him to the ground in an empty lot across from 148 W. Eighth St.
On the ground, Valdez continued to resist even as another officer, Cpl. Justin Matsuhara, came to assist Ballard, police said. During the struggle, Valdez pulled a concealed .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun – loaded with seven hollow-point bullets – from his left front pants pocket and pointed it at Ballard’s face.
“He’s got a gun,” Ballard said.
Matsuhara zapped Valdez with a stun gun in the lower right backside, but Valdez did not stop fighting, police said. Valdez repeatedly pulled the trigger, but the gun did not go off because two bullets were lodged in the chamber. Matsuhara then hit Valdez four to five times – until Valdez dropped the gun – and handcuffed him.
“Damn, he was trying to shoot me,” Ballard said to Matsuhara. “He pointed the gun at my head.”
“You tried to shoot me,” Ballard said to Valdez.
“I’m sorry,” said Valdez, who was also carrying a 4-inch folding knife.
Despite the brush with death, Ballard and Matsuhara had only cuts and scrapes on their hands, arms and legs.
During an interview after the incident at the police station, Valdez confessed to trying to shoot Ballard, officer Jose Barrera wrote in his report.
“Would you do it all over again?” Barrera asked.
“I will,” Valdez said.
“You would?” Barrera prompted.
“I will,” Valdez insisted.
Barrera concluded his report, “Valdez showed no remorse for what he did.”
Valdez said he smoked marijuana and had three or four beers about five hours before the incident, but police said he was lucid during the interview. Blood tests are being processed by the county’s crime lab, police said.
Valdez has 10 prior convictions, including three felony convictions when he was 18 years old and five convictions when he was younger than 17 years old, since purged from his record, according to county records.
On Oct. 10, 1997, Valdez was convicted of felony second-degree robbery and accessory to a felony. Valdez drove the getaway car in a robbery of First Street’s J-V Liquor & Deli, said Ronald Wilson, father of another man convicted in connection with the case.
Seven months later, Valdez was found to have a firearm and was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which carries a sentence of 16 months to three years. Police also said that Valdez was part of a burglary at Goldsmith Seeds, though they did not know when this was or if these were the juvenile convictions.
During the police interview two weeks ago, Valdez said he was a member of a Norteño street gang but has stopped associating with gang members.
After the age of 18, Valdez had two convictions – trespassing in 2006 and driving under the influence this past summer.
Valdez is the son of Pete Valdez Jr., who served on the Gilroy City Council for 16 years. Seven people, including Valdez Jr. showed up at the arraignment of Valdez III two weeks ago, when he was jailed without bail.
Valdez Jr. did not return messages Thursday and, when contacted two weeks ago, hung up the phone.
“I want to apologize to officer John Ballard and in particular to his family for the terrible encounter with our son,” he wrote in a letter to the editor last week. “Although my heart has been ripped out and my spirit damaged, I maintain faith in our judicial system and pray that there will be a just resolve.”
