San Diego Harbor Police on Friday released body-worn and cellphone camera footage of a shootout in Little Italy last month that left an armed suspect dead and an officer wounded.
Christopher Farrell, 26, who was killed in the Nov. 13 shootout, had allegedly shot and killed married couple Rachael Martinez and Jose Medina in downtown San Diego before traveling to Little Italy, reloading his firearm on the way, Harbor Police said.
That morning, a bystander alerted four Harbor Police officers to Farrell as he hid behind an electrical box on Juniper Street.
“Harbor Police let me see your hands,” Officer Alexander Kahn can be heard saying in footage from his body-worn camera.
Kahn approaches the electrical box before he begins to retreat, repeating his order to Farrell to show his hands.
Kahn ducks around a corner with his firearm drawn.
“Put down the gun,” another officer can be heard saying as he stands behind a parked vehicle.
“Drop the gun. We’re Harbor Police. Please just drop the gun we need to talk about this,” Kahn says.
Almost immediately after Kahn stops speaking, gunfire breaks out. Kahn can be seen and heard firing his weapon.
Officer Patrick Lynch, who had been standing near Kahn, can be seen falling to the ground, dropping his rifle.
The shooting lasts around 12 seconds.
Kahn fires his weapon a few more times before he turns to help Lynch.
“Where are you hit? Where are you hit?” Kahn asks.
“Right here,” Lynch answers. “My thigh.”
Footage from Cpl. Jason Day’s body-worn camera, much of which does not contain audio, shows the officer firing his weapon from behind a vehicle on the north side of Juniper Street.
Much of the scene is blocked by a parked vehicle Day was standing behind.
But additional footage from Day’s camera shows several officers approaching Farrell with a ballistics shield after the shooting had ended. Police said that Farrell was lying on the ground but that his firearm had been within arm’s reach.
The incident was also captured by bystanders who filmed the incident from multiple angles offering some of the only clear footage of Farrell as he hid behind the electrical box.
In one video taken through a window, Farrell can be seen behind the electrical box standing, pointing what appears to be a gun toward officers. A woman’s voice can be heard saying, “Oh my god. Oh my God.”
Another video also shows Farrell pointing a gun at officers from behind the box seconds before gunfire breaks out. The person shooting the footage closes the window from which they had been filming.
In another angle taken from behind the officers, Lynch can be seen dropping his rifle and crawling for cover as Kahn and Day can be seen firing their weapons.
A fourth, unidentified officer can be seen with his weapon drawn. San Diego police, who are investigating the shooting, said the fourth officer did not fire his weapon.
Lynch was transported to a hospital but later released.
Farrell was also taken to a hospital but died.
Court records show that both Martinez and Medina had been granted temporary restraining orders against Farrell, but they were never successfully served.
On the day of the shooting, Martinez and Medina had been scheduled to appear in court regarding the restraining orders.
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