Police kill woman who they say stabbed officer during San Diego eviction attempt
SAN DIEGO — A San Diego police officer and three county sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a woman they say stabbed an officer in the chest with a knife when an apparent attempt to evict her went awry Thursday.
Police Chief David Nisleit said the canine officer, a police dog handler, was treated at a hospital and later released.
The incident unfolded around 12:40 p.m. at the Acqua Vista Condominiums in the downtown-adjacent Little Italy neighborhood.
Court-services deputies had gone to the building to serve a female resident with some type of paperwork, acting Police Capt. Matt Dobbs said. A witness said he heard deputies say they were trying to serve an eviction notice.
Dobbs said a woman armed with a chef’s knife opened the door, refused to cooperate with deputies, then closed the door. The deputies called in San Diego police officers to assist.
An L.A. County sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot an unarmed 24-year-old man in 2019 has been charged with voluntary manslaughter, prosecutors said.
While they waited for backup, the deputies learned from an employee at the condos that the woman had threatened a male maintenance worker with a knife on Wednesday.
Dobbs said deputies tried to communicate with the woman for 40 to 45 minutes, to no avail. “When they had all of the appropriate resources,” including less-lethal weapons, they opened the door, Dobbs said.
That’s when the woman stabbed the canine officer, Dobbs said, adding that the knife “went directly into [the officer’s] chest.”
He said the stabbing prompted another officer and three deputies to open fire. The woman was struck at least once and died before she could be taken to a hospital.
Police did not release her name, identifying her only as a 47-year-old woman.
Soon after the incident, dozens of officers and investigators could be seen standing in front of the condominium complex.
Brian Paynter, who said he lives next door to the unit where the shooting took place, said his roommate left to go on a run and, on her way out, sent him a photo of a deputy pointing a gun at his neighbor’s door. He said he heard a deputy yelling for his neighbor to open the door and heard her yelling in a language he didn’t understand. Paynter said he also heard the deputy explain that he was trying to serve her an eviction notice.
The Northern California woman was arrested on suspicion of lying to the FBI as prosecutors allege the entire incident was a hoax.
Soon after, Paynter heard several loud bangs right outside his bedroom. He stepped outside his apartment and saw deputies doing chest compressions on the woman near the front door of the neighboring unit.
Dobbs said he was not aware of a language barrier.
He said the county’s Psychiatric Emergency Response Team was called, but he didn’t know if they had arrived.
Nisleit thanked officers, paramedics and hospital staffers who treated the wounded officer.
“That is great news that our officer is doing very, very well,” the chief said.
Several streets were closed in the area while police investigated the incident.
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