STOCKTON, Calif. — The Stockton Police Department has released video showing a February officer-involved shooting which left a 54-year old Stockton woman dead.
According to the produced video briefing released by the Stockton Police Department Thursday, a Stockton Police Department officer was stopped at a red light on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard when the driver of a gray car hit the officer's car before driving off.
The shooting happened on Feb. 22.
The driver was later identified as 54-year-old Tracy Gaeta of Stockton.
Pursuit before the shooting
The officer whose car was hit attempted to follow Gaeta after she made a u-turn on the on-ramp of I-5, driving towards the officer's car who then pulled over to avoid a collision, police say.
After pulling over, police say the officer whose car was hit lost sight of Gaeta.
According to the Stockton police, a short time later," a dispatcher advised on police radios that they had seen a vehicle matching the description of the suspect's car traveling westbound on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard after running a red light at Fresno Avenue.
A Stockton Police K-9 officer later notified the dispatcher that the car was at Charter Way and Roberts Road and he had started a pursuit, police say in the briefing video.
The chase continued to an eastbound turn on Rolerson Road, approaching a dead end. At the dead-end on Rolerson Road, Gaeta's car stopped as the K-9 officer began to exit his car, according to Stockton Police.
What the video shows
Body camera video released by police begins as the officer exits his car.
In the video, Gaeta's car can be seen moving in reverse, striking the front of the officer's car. The officer was knocked back inside of his car. Police say he hit his head as he advised over radio that he was being rammed.
The officer attempted to get out of his car again as Gaeta continued to back into the police vehicle, the video shows. The officer then fired his weapon.
16 seconds after the officer initially opened fire on Gaeta, the body camera video shows her vehicle moving forward. The officer opens fire again as Gaeta begins to drive. While attempting to turn the car around, the officer opened fire again.
In total, about 30 gunshots can be heard in a span of about 32 seconds but due to the number of shots it is difficult to get an exact count. ABC10 has reached out to Stockton Police for comment.
The officer who opened fire is heard saying, "I got one down in the car, stage medics" before the video ends five seconds later.
After the last shots rang out, the Stockton Police Department says more officers arrived on the scene and pulled the driver out of the car.
Reaction to the video
“What I saw was, I feel like they wrongfully killed my mom,” said Tressie Gaeta, daughter of Tracy. “ There was so many other ways they could have went about it.”
ABC10 reached out to Tressie hours after Stockton police released the video of the incident on YouTube.
“I believe… it was so many shots, and it was not necessary for that many gunshots,” she said. “It just doesn't feel like everything was told the way that it should have been told there's a lot of pieces that are missing.”
Tressie told ABC10 it still puzzles her why her mother was in that area when she lives in Sacramento.
“I do plan on getting some more legal action involved and contacted some attorneys to help me figure out what really happened, because they're not telling us everything,” Tressie said.
ABC10 also spoke with Stewart Katz, an attorney with decades of experience working with police shooting cases.
“On the one hand, I would probably put pretty high odds (they) are going to say it was a justified shooting, and I suppose you could justify it, on the other hand, just seems like this was unnecessary as well,” Katz said.
While he sees the driver back into the officer's patrol car, Katz doesn't think the officer's life was endangered.
“I guess I understand why the officer shoots, sort of, but it's just unfortunate," Katz said. "I mean, doesn't seem like (she wants to stop) obviously not. Was she a danger on the road? Clearly.”
Katz went on to say that he believes law enforcement will call the shooting justified.
“I think they're going to call it justified. I don't think that's, you know, the most outrageous thing I've heard in my life.”
However, after watching the video, Katz said he was surprised about one thing.
“(I was) little surprised in a way of how little the impact was,” he said. “I guess I was surprised the six or seven or five to seven seconds — as I sort of roughed it out between the impact, and then nothing happens, then he started shooting. And then after he started shooting, there's no indication that the cars ever backing towards him.”
The Aftermath
Police say officers attempted life-saving measures. Gaeta was taken to the San Joaquin General Hospital where she died from her injuries.
During a February interview with ABC10, Gaeta family described her as loving, caring, honest and heartful adding that they were searching for answers.
"Wasn't there other alternatives they could have used to do that? I think that was really excessive and we would like to have answers," said Betty Faciane, Gaeta's sister.
The Stockton Police Department says a multi-agency critical incident investigation is now underway as well as an internal departmental use of force review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ43whbdF04
